Tashkent, Jul 13 (IANS): Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan plan to introduce a full free trade regime, according to the press service of the Uzbek government on Friday.

Uzbek Prime Minister Abdulla Aripov discussed this during his visit to Kazakhstan with his Kazakh counterpart Olzhas Bektenov.

According to the statement, considering the geopolitical and rapidly changing situation, with the effective use of existing reserves, it is necessary in the coming years to increase the volume of mutual trade to 10 billion US dollars.

"To achieve this, it is essential to strengthen systematic work on replacing imports from third countries and transitioning to a full free trade regime," it noted, reports Xinhua news agency.

On July 11-12, a meeting of an intergovernmental joint commission on bilateral cooperation took place in Almaty, Kazakhstan, chaired by the prime ministers of both countries.

It is reported that last year Uzbekistan invested a record 22.2 million dollars in Kazakhstan's economy.