“Russia is Uzbekistan’s key investor. It accounts for 40% of the Central Asian republic’s total foreign investments,” he told a meeting of Russian-Uzbek intergovernmental commission on economic cooperation on Wednesday.

“But I would not make illusions and would raise the issue that Russia should overcome a 50% mark,” he said.

Ivanov reiterated that Prime Minister Viktor Zubkov spoke about Russia’ s opportunity to reach the investment volume of US$2 billion.

“This objective seems quite achievable already in the near future. Our commission will take efforts to reach this goal, too,” Ivanov said.