Uzbekistan, Tashkent, 9 July / corr. Trend T.Zhukov / The Uzbek and Kazakh Ministries were commissioned to develop a five-month concept to create free trade zone, Umirzak Shukeyev, the Kazakh deputy premier, said in Tashkent as a result of his meeting with Rustam Azimov, the first Uzbek Deputy Premier and the Finance Minister.
"It will be a absolutely new document, which will envisage not only renovation of customs tariff, but also regulation of excise, migration, goods promotion, investment, free routine of passage places," the Kazakh deputy premier stated after discussions with his Uzbek counterpart.
The Kazakh Embassy in Tashkent told Trend that at the end of the talks an interdepartmental agreement was signed on water supply to Kazakh consumers from the Sirdarya River. This document was inked with the Uzbek Rural and Water Economy Ministry and the Kazakh Agriculture Ministry Committee on water resources. "According to the agreement, Uzbekistan will supply 600mln cu m of water to Kazakhstan through Sirdarya river out of the Kyrgyz Toktogulski reservoir. This agreement was achieved with the Kyrgyz Government last week," the embassy said.
Fuel and energy cooperation was also discussed during the talks. "Agreement among Gazprom, Uzbekneftegaz and KazMunayGaz on gas exchange remains in force," Shukeyev said.
"As to gas supply, we agreed to leave in force the agreement on exchange of 2.8bln cu gas, which was signed among Gazprom, Uzbekneftegaz and KazMunayGaz, and will be resumed in 2008 in the volume not less than it was last year," the Kazakh deputy premier stated. He said that this volume will not be enough for the south of Kazakhstan, because Kazakhstan offered Uzbekistan gas swap operation.
The core of the proposal is that 800mln cu m of gas pumped into the Bozoy storage in Kazakhstan could be delivered to Russia in winter in exchange to export gas of Uzbekistan. "In exchange we will receive additional 800mln cu m of gas. We sounded this proposal and Uzbekistan took it for examination and will respond in two months," Shukeyev said.
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