Visiting Chinese Vice Premier Li Keqiang on Saturday called for closer economic ties between China and Uzbekistan while meeting with Uzbek First Deputy Prime Minister Rustam Azimov.

Li said China and Uzbekistan have deepened their pragmatic cooperation and achieved a lot in this regard in recent years.

Besides growing trade, bilateral cooperation in areas like investment and projects outsourcing also made rapid progress, he noted, adding the two sides have improved the quality and increased the level of bilateral, pragmatic cooperation with joint projects being carried out in energy, mining, transportation, agriculture, telecom, machinery, petrochemical and other sectors.

The Chinese leader called on the two sides to capitalize on the progress of bilateral cooperation, and take full advantage of the fact that the two economies are highly complementary to each other and the two countries enjoy geographical closeness.

He specifically said the two countries should continue to expand bilateral trade and two-way investment and spare no effort to carry out major joint infrastructure projects.

Meanwhile, the two sides should enhance cooperation in other areas and move faster on carrying out aid and loans initiatives to achieve mutually-beneficial and steady development of both economies, he added.

On broader bilateral relations, Li said the relationship between China and Uzbekistan has been developing smoothly as political trust between the two sides continues to deepen and cooperation in specific areas like economy, energy, transportation and security grows stronger day by day.

He noted China and Uzbekistan have supported each other on critical issues and worked closely within multilateral frameworks like the United Nations and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, which has helped both sides safeguard their common interests and has had a positive impact on regional and world peace and stability.

Chinese President Hu Jintao met with his Uzbek counterpart Islam Karimov during the 2008 Summer Olympic Games in Beijing, and also on the sidelines of the summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization countries held in the Russian city of Yekaterinburg earlier this month.

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao paid his first official visit to Uzbekistan in November 2007 after attending a meeting of the prime ministers of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization countries held in the Uzbek capital Tashkent.

Li said Chinese and Uzbek leaders had an in-depth exchange of views on deepening pragmatic bilateral cooperation and reached a lot of important agreements during their meetings.

He said the primary goal of his current visit is to carry out specific programs of pragmatic cooperation between China and Uzbekistan according to the consensus reached by the top leaders of the two sides with the aim of bringing more concrete benefits to the two peoples.

On his part, Azimov said the leaders and senior officials of Uzbekistan and China have met on a regular basis to build a solid base for further developing bilateral relations.

He described Li's visit to the country as an important step toward putting into practice the consensus reached by the leaders of the two countries.

He said Uzbekistan and China have made remarkable progress on energy cooperation in recent years, which reflects a new dimension of bilateral economic cooperation and will benefit both economies.

The Uzbek official said his country has been closely watching the economic development of China and would like to learn from China's successful experience.

He also praised the measures taken by the Chinese government to tackle the global financial crisis.

After the meeting, the two attended the signing ceremony of 11 government or corporate bilateral agreements on cooperation in such areas as economy, tourism and health.

(Xinhua News Agency June 28, 2009)