ISLAMABAD, March 14: Pakistan will export textile products to the untapped market of Uzbekistan and other Central Asian Republics (CARs) through the land route via Afghanistan, a senior official told Dawn on Wednesday.

Presently Pakistan has been trading with these states by air. As the air freight cost is very high so Pakistan has a limited market access for its products particularly textile products.

Textile Minister Mushtaq Ali Cheema told Dawn that to this effect a memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed on Wednesday between the two countries to allow trading of goods through land route via Afghanistan. Pakistan will also import cotton from Uzbekistan.

Currently, Uzbekistan is exporting its cotton through Iranian port Bandar Abbas to neighbouring countries which cost around $1,000 per ton.

Uzbekistan produces around six million tons of cotton and exports it. Pakistan imports around three million tons of lint every year and can become a potential buyer of Uzbek cotton.

The minister said that Pakistan had also signed a transit agreement with Uzbekistan that would allow transit of Pakistani goods for onward movement to other Central Asian Republics via land route.

He said agreements in energy and other areas were also signed between the two countries.

The minister said that the MoU would enable exporters to transport their goods to Uzbekistan and other states that would reduce the cost of doing business.

“This would certainly make our products more competitive with those coming from other countries particularly India in Central Asian markets,” the minister said.

The minister said that there was a great potential for Pakistani products, which remained unexplored for the last many years. “Central Asian markets are our future export market. We will explore it,” he added.

The trade balance between the two countries is not according to their true potential, the minister said and added that Uzbek economy indicators were showing stability for further expansion in trading between the two countries.