Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) -- A major international event - the 16th summit of the Economic Cooperation Organization begins in Tashkent.

The summit will be attended by President of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev, Presidents of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev, Iran Ebrahim Raisi, Kyrgyzstan Sadyr Japarov, Tajikistan Emomali Rahmon, Turkmenistan Serdar Berdimuhamedov, Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Prime Minister of Kazakhstan Alikhan Smailov, head of the interim government of Pakistan Anwar ul-Haq Kakar and ECO Secretary General Khusraw Noziri.

The Economic Cooperation Organization includes ten countries: Azerbaijan, Afghanistan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Turkey and Uzbekistan.

Uzbekistan’s trade turnover with the ECO countries exceeded US$1.13 billion. This year, cooperation has become significantly more active. Over nine months, trade turnover within the ECO amounted to US$9.2 billion, and the share of participating countries in Uzbekistan’s total trade turnover reached 20.5 percent. Exports amount to US$4.2 billion, imports – US$5 billion (+3.3 percent).

The growth trend continued in 2022, with trade turnover increasing by 10.4 percent to US$12.4 billion. The share of the ECO in Uzbekistan’s foreign trade is 24.7 percent. Notably, exports reached US$5.75 billion, up 6.3 percent from 2021.

Imports increased by US$6.62 billion, or 14.3 percent. Last year, a third of total exports - 29.8 percent - came from ECO countries.

The largest shares of trade last year belonged to Kazakhstan (37.5 percent) and Turkey (26.3 percent). They are followed by Kyrgyzstan (10.2), Turkmenistan (7.5), Afghanistan (6.1), Tajikistan (5.5), Iran (3.5), Pakistan (1.9) and Azerbaijan (1.5 ).

Today, on 8 November, delegations will begin arriving in Tashkent. The President of our country will hold bilateral meetings with their heads. In particular, negotiations are planned for today with the Presidents of Kyrgyzstan, Turkey, the head of the interim government of Pakistan and the Secretary General of the ECO.

Tomorrow, on 9 November, a high-level meeting will take place. A number of bilateral meetings are planned to be held on its margins.