BAKU: France may increase its investments in the Azerbaijani economy, which could promote diversification of economy and development of regions.
Baku and Paris will seek to increase the volume of French investments in Azerbaijan, Sevinj Hasanova, Azerbaijan’s Deputy Economy and Industry Minister, said within the framework of the Azerbaijani-French business meeting on November 26.
She noted that the two sides had a fruitful meeting on November 26 and discussed economic and political cooperation between the regions of the two countries.
Today relations between Azerbaijan and France are at a high level and continue to develop and expand.
“French companies are well represented in Azerbaijan, and we will further work to increase the volume of French investments in our country,” the deputy minister stressed.
Andre Vallini, the head of the French delegation, the Minister of State for Regional Reform, attached to the Minister for Decentralization and the Civil Service of France, in turn, said that France will spare no effort for even greater development of relations between the two countries.
Addressing the event, Elman Mammadov, the counselor of the Azerbaijani embassy in France, said Azerbaijan and France will discuss production of the French mineral water Evian in Azerbaijan.
“The Azerbaijani delegation will visit the city of Evian in December to explore the prospective cooperation,” he noted. “Our delegation will discuss the possibility of establishing the Evian mineral water production in the city of Ismayilli and learn from the experience of French colleagues in the production of mineral water and glass bottles.”
Evian is a brand of the French premium mineral water coming from several sources around the town of Évian-les-Bains (a south shore of Lake Geneva). Danone has owned this brand since 1970.
The Azerbaijani side presented to Vallini a list of French companies engaged in illegal activities in Nagorno-Karabakh, an Azerbaijani territory temporarily occupied by Armenia.
The prospects of cooperation between the French port and the Baku International Sea Trade Port were also discussed at the meeting.
French companies are actively participating in the petrochemical, food, agricultural, machine engineering, tourism and other spheres in Azerbaijan.
Some 91 companies from France are involved in the oil and gas projects in Azerbaijan as subcontractors. At the same time, over 50 French companies are involved in the non-oil sectors’ projects, including the first Azerbaijani telecommunications satellite Azerspace, and a plant for solid waste recycling.
The trade turnover between Azerbaijan and France amounted to $1.681 billion in 2014, while the total volume of French investments in the Azerbaijani economy currently stands at $2.4 billion.
Currently, the inter-regional cooperation between Azerbaijan and France is at a high level. Some 12 Azerbaijani cities signed a cooperation agreement with 10 cities and one province in France.
