DUSHANBE December 8, 2011, Asia-Plus — The third session of the Tajik-Ukrainian Commission for Trade and Economic Cooperation, co-chaired by Tajik Minister of Energy and Industries Gul Sherali and Ukrainian Minister of Regional Development, Construction and Housing and Communal Services Anatoly Bliznyuk, took place in Kyiv, Ukraine on December 5-6.
The meeting participants decided to expand bilateral mutually beneficial economic cooperation between their countries.
A well informed source in the Government of Tajikistan says relevant ministries and agencies of Tajikistan and Ukraine have been ordered to set up working groups before the end of the first quarter of 2012 for coordination of decisions made at the meeting as well as to consider the possibility of participation of Ukrainian companies in tenders for construction of rail links and highways in Tajikistan.
Sectors like energy, construction, and engineering industry, as well as construction of chemical and oil-processing enterprises, logistic centers and water mains in Tajikistan were outlined as areas which could drive the bilateral trade between the two countries.
The commission reportedly highly appraised a positive experience of cooperation between the regions of the two countries.
A memorandum on trade and economic, scientific-technological and humanitarian cooperation between the Lugansk region in Ukraine and Tajikistan’s Khatlon province is expected to be signed during an official visit of Tajik President Emomali Rahmon to Ukraine that will take place at the end of the next week.
During his stay in Kyiv, Tajik Minister of Energy and Industries Gul Sherali met with Ukrainian Prime Minister Nikolai Azarov. State and prospects of further expansion of economic cooperation between Tajikistan and Ukraine were the focus of the meeting, the source said.
According to the Agency for Statistics under the President of Tajikistan, a two-way trade between Tajikistan and Ukraine has amounted to 60 million U.S. dollars over the first nine months of this year, which is 116.1 percent more than in the same period last year.
