The Union Minister of Textiles of India Shri Shankersinh Vaghela visited Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan with high level delegation.

The Kazakhstan companies have expressed interest in import of textiles from India, mainly home textiles. They have also expressed interests in training of textile engineering and design students from Kazakhstan in India.

During his visit, the Indian minister had meetings with representatives of Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Kazakhstan and the Light Industry Association of Kazakhstan at Almaty, Governor of South Kazakhstan Region at Shymkent, the Foreign Minister, the Minister of Industry and Trade and the Agriculture Ministers of Kazakhstan Republic at Astana.

The delegation also visited the Special Economic Zone for development of textile cluster ‘Ontustik (SEZ), Shymkent. Tashkent, Uzbekistan is very close to Shymkent and Uzbekistan, a part of the former Soviet Republics in Central Asia, is India’s prominent trading partner among the Central Asian Republics. Shri Vaghela also visited Tashkent, Uzbekistan. The Indian Ambassador in Uzbekistan briefed him about the possibilities of textile cooperation with that country. Shri Vaghela also visited the Shri Lal Bahadur Shastri Memorial in Tashkent.

Kazakhstan is India’s largest trading partner among the Central Asian Republics. Though the current volume of textile trade between the two countries is low, there are enormous possibilities of increasing bilateral trade and co-operation in the textile sector between the two countries.

The visit was successful in boosting the bilateral co-operation with these two important CIS countries.