"Regrettably, bilateral interaction of small and medium businesses is not yet at their best, and the countries have a huge potential for stepping up their trade and economic cooperation," Shafranik said. The sides reached US$3 billion trade in the past years, "and have all possibilities to increase the index to US$10 billion in the near future," he said.

"Bilateral relations between companies of our countries in the fuel and energy sector may promote the use of those possibilities," Shafranik said.

"At the same time, the current developments cannot suffice us fully," he said, adding, "We can see that business cooperation and development of direct trade and economic contacts fall short the dynamically growing political relations."

This will be the theme of a meeting of the Russian-Uzbek Business Council, which Shafranik chairs.

The meeting will be held in Tashkent on Wednesday, simultaneously with the Intergovernmental Commission meeting.

Shafranik also called on "Russian business, mainly the medium one, to pay close attention to Uzbekistan, which creates favourable conditions for us, continues an active privatization process, and has vast and beneficial conditions for the intensification of agricultural and industrial production, and for business as well."

He also criticized insufficient Russia’s investments in the quite attractive and dynamically developing economy of Uzbekistan.