Czech companies to offer new projects
Czech companies are going to offer Azerbaijani businessmen new projects in the field of construction and pharmaceuticals, as well as financial sector.
The Czech side will present the projects during the next meeting of the Azerbaijani-Czech Intergovernmental Commission and joint business forum scheduled for January 17-18 in Baku.
Prospects of cooperation in the above-mentioned areas, as well as the strengthening of trade and economic relations in general will be discussed during the meeting, said Farid Shafiyev, Azerbaijani Ambassador to Prague.
The governmental delegation of the Czech Republic will be accompanied by representatives of major Czech companies operating in the fields of agriculture and food industry, finance, insurance, energy, logistics, construction, law, chemistry, engineering, glass manufacturing, and other sectors of the economy.
The delegation that will include representatives of several ministries and state departments will be headed by Czech Minister of Industry and Trade Jan Mládek, who will also meet with the Azerbaijani highranking officials in Baku.
The trade turnover between Azerbaijan and the Czech Republic amounted to $312.02 million in January-November 2016, and $214.17 million of which accounted for the export of Azerbaijani goods to the Czech Republic, according to the Azerbaijani State Customs Committee.
The Czech Republic ranks 12th in the list of main importers of Azerbaijani goods. The share of the Czech Republic in the total export from Azerbaijan totaled 2.58 percent in January-November 2016.
In the meantime, the two countries have postponed the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MOU) in the energy sphere in connection with the uncoordinated regulations of the draft document, but Shafiyev noted that experts will continue working on it.
The governments of both countries previously made proposals to sign a MoU in energy sphere between Azerbaijan’s Energy Ministry and Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Czech Republic.
The document was planned to be signed during the upcoming visit of Mladek to Baku.
“Azerbaijan, which is one of major oil suppliers to the Czech Republic, is interested in the development of cooperation in the energy sphere,” noted the ambassador, stressing that the signing of the memo will create new opportunities for deepening of the cooperation between the two countries.
Shafiyev expressed hope that after the completion of the work on the draft memorandum, the document will be submitted for signing during the visit of Azerbaijan’s Energy Minister Natig Aliyev to Prague scheduled for this year.
The Azerbaijani oil meets nearly a quarter of the Czech Republic’s annual demand. Therefore, Azerbaijan, which makes a weighty contribution to the diversification of the Czech Republic’s energy resources, has become an important strategic partner of this European country.
Azerbaijan’s SOCAR produced 6.94 million tons of oil from the country’s offshore and onshore fields in January-November 2016, as compared to 7.58 million tons in the same period of 2015.
Along with SOCAR, foreign companies also extract oil in Azerbaijan. In total, 41.59 million tons of oil was produced in Azerbaijan in 2015, as compared to 42.02 million tons in 2014.
The forecast for oil production in the country in 2017 stands at 39.797 million, while the figure is 3.7 percent lower than the index of 2016.