Question to the Department for International Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, what steps her Department is taking to increase trade with central Asian countries.

Fast growing economies such as Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan provide an abundance of opportunities for British business across a wide range of sectors.

My Department is supporting British business to grab these opportunities through trade dialogues and regular business to business exchanges, including the annual United Kingdom-Kazakhstan Inter-Governmental Commission that I co-chaired late last year in Astana.

We are working hard to remove trade barriers with Uzbekistan too.For example, an update to their Intellectual Property regime, removing barriers for British businesses could be worth over £11million per year.