Azernews.Az

By Mirsaid Ibrahimzade

Azerbaijan and China have been demonstrating impressive dynamics of cooperation. Currently, the relations are going to enter a new phase within the Belt and Road Initiative.

Taking into account that Azerbaijan is located between East and West, North and South, the country will be fully involved in this project and its transit potential will be fully used.

Niyazi Safarov, Azerbaijani Deputy Minister of Economy, noted at the forum on trade and economic cooperation between the Chinese province of Xi'an and Azerbaijan on July 5 that Azerbaijan attaches great importance to economic cooperation with China.

He said that in the first five months of this year, the trade turnover between Azerbaijan and China amounted to $1.1 billion and went up by 2.6 percent compared to the same period last year. He added that the turnover was $1.3 billion in 2018.

Safarov stressed that Azerbaijan’s investments in China’s economy reached $1.7 billion while China’s investment in Azerbaijan’s economy is $800 million.

“There are 119 companies with Chinese capital in Azerbaijan today,” he pointed out.

Safarov also emphasized good prospects for developing economic cooperation in such areas as transport, transit, industry, trade, investment and tourism.

In addition, he spoke about the economic reforms carried out in Azerbaijan and current business environment.

As for cooperation between the two states, it should be noted that noticeable results have been achieved in the non-oil sector. The deals signed during April include plans to construct the Sumgayit Chemical-Industrial Park to produce automobile tires, a 300 hectare greenhouse complex in Azerbaijan’s Kurdamir region, as well as agro-industrial development parks in Guba, Goychay and Khachmaz regions.

Moreover, within the tourism cooperation, memorandum of understanding on the simplification of group trips of Chinese tourists to Azerbaijan was signed in March this year, which laid a legal base for expanding cooperation in this area.

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Mirsaid Ibrahimzade is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @MirsaidIbrahim1

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