Azernews.Az

By Leman Mammadova

Azerbaijan's relations with Astrakhan, Russia's strategic city in the Caspian Sea, are rapidly developing in recent years.

Recently, the Governor of the Astrakhan region of the Russian Federation Sergey Morozov was on a visit to Baku where he discussed cooperation with Azerbaijan particularly in trade and transport. The important agreement to restore direct flight between Baku and Astrakhan in 2019 was reached as part of these talks.

Astrakhan will open its business center in Baku in autumn 2019. The new center is aimed at increasing supply of Russian goods to the Azerbaijani market, Denis Afanasyev, the Minister of International and Foreign Economic Relations of the Astrakhan Region told AZERTAC.

“Our business center is similar to the Azerbaijan business center in Astrakhan, and maybe the area is slightly larger. Sergei Morozov, the governor of Astrakhan province, got acquainted with the construction works during his visit to Azerbaijan. The construction is speeding up, the center should be opened in the autumn of 2019,” he said.

At present, shipbuilding products, fish and flour-grinding products are being supplied to the Azerbaijani market from Astrakhan.

He also informed that Azerbaijan's logistics center, which supplies fruits and vegetables to Russia from Iran and Turkey, will accept the first cargo by the end of this year.

Noting that it is planned to supply up to 1 million tons of products via the center in 2019, Afanasyev said that Azerbaijan's KDY Logistics has almost completed the project and agreements reached with Azerbaijan, Turkey and Iran.

"By the end of this year, we expect the arrival of the first batch of goods by railway. About 1 million tons of cargo will be delivered from Azerbaijan, Turkey and Iran via the center in 2019,” he added.

The logistics center is set up at Kutum station in 50 hectares that will reduce the cost of the products and the delivery time.

He also underlined that at present, fruits and vegetables are mainly exported through the sea, causing the product to be damaged or spoilt due to the high moisture content. Transportation of products by special railway transport will help to solve this problem.

Implementation of the project will create about 3,000 jobs in the region. Azerbaijan's KDY Logistics works jointly with Russian Railways on the creation of a railway center in Astrakhan.

Relations between Azerbaijan and Astrakhan region of Russian Federation has always existed as they share similar geographical position and ethnicity that bound them.

The location of both of them on the Caspian coast and on the East-West trade route makes mutual relationships inevitable.

The center of the Astrakhan region is city Astrakhan, named after Haji Tarkhan in the XIII-XIV centuries, became an important trading center on the seabed of the Volga River, located on the Silk Road in the Caspian Sea. Such a favorable geographical position allowed the old city to become the largest transportation hub of the entire Lower Volga region. Railway and air traffic, sea and river port of the Volga-Caspian basin made the city a frequently visited place not only in the list of connoisseurs of rich cultural heritage. The population of Astrakhan is multiethnic though it is mostly Russian. At present, Tatars, the main population of the region in the past, make up only 7 percent of the population.

The Astrakhan province was determined to play an important role in Russia's politics to the Caspian, relations with the East, as well as a reliable military and political outpost in southern Russia.

Thanks to access to the Caspian Sea, the Astrakhan region plays an important role in the system of international routes.

The region is located at the intersection of two Eurasian transport directions at once: the North-South corridor and the West-East corridor. The North-South Corridor connects Europe through the Caspian Sea and Iranian territory with India, and the West-East corridor runs from Europe through the Astrakhan Oblast and Kazakhstan in the direction of China.

In this regard, the transport and logistics complex, including the port and other infrastructure, is very intensively developed in the Astrakhan region.

Oil and gas, chemical, shipbuilding complex, agriculture, processing, engineering, building materials, transport and logistics, trade, food, fish, tourism are the main activity areas in the region.

The greatest popularity to the region was brought by reserves of hydrocarbons - natural gas and gas condensate. The continental part of the Astrakhan region and the Caspian Sea adjacent to it contain big reserves of oil and gas, which are the largest in the European part of Russia.

The resources of the land part of the region are about 6 trillion cubic meters of gas and more than 1.3 billion tons of liquid hydrocarbons. The main share of hydrocarbon reserves accounts for gas condensate fields of the Astrakhan geological arch.

Currently, the development of hydrocarbon deposits in the Russian sector of the Caspian Sea is actively underway, in which eight large oil and gas condensate fields have been discovered. The estimated resources of the Caspian Sea shelf part of the Astrakhan region for oil and gas condensate are about 1.1 billion tons, natural gas - about 800 billion cubic meters.

In addition, in the Astrakhan region there are deposits of salt, gypsum and iodine.

Moreover, the development of the shipbuilding industry is inextricably linked with the development of offshore oil and gas fields in the Caspian Sea.

One of the most important sectors of the economy of the Astrakhan region is the agro-industrial complex, which is represented by two main areas: crop production and animal husbandry. Astrakhan region is one of the largest vegetable producers in Russia.

The presence of significant fish resources in the Volga River and the Caspian Sea is the basis of the fishing and fish industry of the Astrakhan region.

Another major sector of the regional economy is tourism covering cultural, educational, business, pilgrim, ecological, fishing, hunting, gastronomic and ethnographic branches.

The unique geographical location of the Astrakhan region in the Volga River delta, the diversity of its landscapes and the richness of nature attracts over two million tourists to the region every year.

Astrakhan is often called the “Volga Venice” - it is located on dozens of islands, and all parts of the city are connected by a network of bridges and canals. Cruise tourism in the Astrakhan region is one of the most promising types of tourism.

A large list of mineral waters, which are the basis of health tourism in the region, has been identified in the region.

As relations between Azerbaijan and Russia are of strategic nature, the Astrakhan region plays a special role in the development of these relations.

Documents covering socio-economic, trade, scientific-technical and humanitarian spheres have been signed between Azerbaijan and Astrakhan province over the past decade.

The Azerbaijani investors became the first foreign businessmen in Astrakhan’s Lotos special economic zone in 2017. Azerbaijan’s ATEF Group of Companies launched the construction of a plant for the production of electrical equipment in the special economic zone. The construction of an electrical equipment plant with $ 18 mln in investment is currently underway.

The opening of the business center of Azerbaijan, built on the initiative of the Heydar Aliyev Foundation, took place in the Russian city of Astrakhan this year to introduce Made in Azerbaijan brand abroad. The interested Russian companies also have opportunity to conclude long-term contracts with specific suppliers from Azerbaijan.

According to the results of 2017, the volume of foreign trade turnover between Azerbaijan and Astrakhan province exceeds $ 16 million. It is 4.3 times more than in 2016.

According to statistics, at the beginning of this year, 56 enterprises were represented in the region with the participation of Azerbaijani capital, which is about 12 percent of the total number of foreign enterprises operating in Astrakhan region. Mainly companies specializing in the manufacture of shipbuilding products, supplies of metal products, building materials and packaging containers, food products enter the Azerbaijani market from the Astrakhan region.

The main share in the structure of imports from Azerbaijan to the Astrakhan region in 2017 and early 2018 is occupied by pipes for drilling, which are supplied to the Russian company Rosneft. In total, in 2017, they were delivered in the amount of $ 14 million, and since the beginning of 2018 - in the amount of $ 4.6 million.

The tourism cooperation that has great potential. In this sense, restoration of direct flights will boost tourist flows mutually.

At present, the project of a cruise between the Caspian countries, that will boost tourism and transit potential of the littoral states, is at the development stage. Approximate commissioning of the liner is scheduled for next year. At the first stage, trips will be organized on the Astrakhan-Baku route, and, then, the route will be further expanded until 2020.

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