Azerbaijan to explore trade and investment in Malaysia
KOTA KINABALU: The Malaysian International Chamber of Commerce & Industry (MICCI) Sabah received a courtesy call from Irfan Davudov, Ambassador of Azerbaijan to Malaysia, on February 7, during his visit to Kota Kinabalu.
During the meeting, Irfan briefed the Branch Chairman of MICCI Sabah, Datuk Lee Swi Heng and its exco members, Anders Moller and Thor Gervasi on potentials of Azerbaijan.
According the Irfan, there isn’t any direct flight from Azerbaijan, as yet, but he is hopeful that the connectivity from Baku, the capital city of Azerbaijan to Kuala Lumpur will soon be initiated through negotiations with airlines such as Malaysia Airlines and AirAsia.
He mentioned that his embassy will explore and promote the potential of bilateral trade and investment activities between Azerbaijan and Malaysia business communities, and hence encourage positive establishments of business relations.
He added that Azerbaijan is located in a very strategic crossroad from Central Asia to as far as East Europe.
For Malaysian companies they are welcome to invest in Azerbaijan which recognises that Malaysia being an important hub in this part of Asia.
Likewise, tourism sector is important for Azerbaijan, Irfan hoped that more Malaysians will visit Azerbaijan.
Moreover, Azerbaijan has great potentials in energy generation through its natural gas, petroleum, hydro, wind and etc in key development areas of Azerbaijan.
The Free Economic Zones and railway system will facilitate more efficient trade and investment activities, particularly for exports/ imports to and fro markets in Central Asia and European countries.
Azerbaijan’s government is encouraging more investments into the country for example from Saudi Arabia and China with multiple trade agreements being signed with countries surrounding the Azerbaijan’s region.
He also urged MICCI Sabah to organise meetings between Azerbaijan business associations and Sabah’s business community physically or online with the purpose for business communities to explore and collaborate benefitial bilateral trade and investment relations.
The Embassy is also expecting to participate in business international events in Sabah in the near future.
Lee, on behalf of the MICCI Sabah Exco, thanked Irfan and Shabnam Karimova, the First Secretary of the Embassy of Azerbaijan to Malaysia for the visit and ensured to work closely with the embassy in near future.