TEHRAN: Iranian and Azerbaijani businessmen convened in a seminar, hosted by Baku, to look into ways bilateral trade could be scaled up, the IRIB reported on Tuesday.
The seminar was an opportunity for Iranian firms active in the fields of oil and gas, petrochemical, housing, water, electricity, and automaking to seek cooperation avenues with their Azerbaijani counterparts.
Mohsen Pak-Aeen, Iranian ambassador to Azerbaijan, put in the seminar that presidents of the two countries have already shown their strong political will for expansion of bilateral ties and it is hoped that traders can avail themselves of the opportunity.
Also, in the session, Rufat Mammadov, president of Azerbaijan Export and Investment Promotion Foundation, named Iran as the most important economic partner of Azerbaijan.
“Currently, 458 Iranian firms are active in Azerbaijan, investing more than $760 million in the country,” Mammadov was quoted as saying in the seminar.
Further, Mammadov had a positive evaluation of grounds for bilateral economic ties and called for expansion of trade cooperation between Iran and Azerbaijan.
It is worthwhile to note that Baku is hosting Iran’s first specialized exhibition on oil, gas, petrochemical, water, electricity, and construction industries as well as technical and engineering services, dubbed “Iran Project”.
Currently, trade between Iran and Azerbaijan amounts to nearly $500 million per annum, but it can be boosted.
Azerbaijan was the 12th biggest importer of Iranian non-oil goods in the first seven months of the current Iranian calendar year (March 21-October 22), according to the Iran Customs Administration.
Iran exported $156.972 million of non-oil goods to Azerbaijan and imported $12.739 million of non-oil goods from the country in the six-month period.
Azerbaijan was also the 12th leading importer of Iranian non-oil goods in the previous Iranian calendar year, which ended on March 20, with importing $435.347 million of non-oil goods from Iran and exporting $22.22 million of non-oil goods to the country.
In 2014, Azerbaijan was the second biggest export market of Iranian non-oil goods after Turkmenistan among the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS).
