TEHRAN – Iran and Uzbekistan announced readiness to boost transit of goods through expanding their national rail networks.

During a meeting between Mohammad Gharavi, the head of the transit committee of the Iranian Railways Company, and Elyor Ganiev, the minister of economic relations, investments, and trade of Uzbekistan, the two sides discussed ways to use the Iranian railways to transit cotton and chemical fertilizers from Uzbekistan.

The officials agreed to transit 400,000 tons of cotton and 300,000 tons of fertilizers from Uzbekistan in the current year and increase the transit of fertilizers to one million tons in the coming years.

In May, Iranian Transport and Urban Development Minister Abbas Akhoundi called members of the Economic Cooperation Organization, Namely Iran, Pakistan, Turkey, Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, to boost cooperation in the rail transport sector. 
He urged the private sector to invest in the expansion of rail transport infrastructures in the region. 
Uzbekistan was the 28th leading importer of Iranian non-oil goods in the previous Iranian calendar year, which ended on March 20, 2015, according to the Iran Customs Administration.     

Iran exported $103.77 million of non-oil goods to Uzbekistan and imported $63.3 million of non-oil goods from the country.