Azernews.Az

By Aynur Jafarova

Azerbaijan plays an important role in Kazakhstan’s interests' sphere, Kazakh Ambassador to Azerbaijan Amangeldi Zhumabayev said in an interview with local newspaper "Liter".

He noted Kazakhstan annually supplies over one million tons of grain to the Azerbaijani market. The Azerbaijani companies, for their part, supply high-quality fruits and vegetables worth over $60 million to the western regions of Kazakhstan.

In June 2014, the construction of Azersun center for production and logistics started in the territory of Seaport Aktau special economic zone, which will include a modern warehouse with refrigeration units for simultaneous storage of 10 000 tons of agricultural products, including 2,500 tons of fresh fruits and vegetables.

Speaking about the investment, the diplomat said the direct investments of the Azerbaijani side in the first stage of construction of this center amounted to over 20 million euros. It is expected that the center will be constructed based on advanced technologies, and its total area will amount to 4.8 hectares.

“Construction of a large modern logistics center will allow resolving the issue of food security and create more working places for our citizens,” Zhumabayev added.

The construction of the logistics center will be accomplished in February-March 2015. The next stage will be the vegetable processing and production of canned products for sale in the Customs Union countries.

The ambassador also noted the importance of coordinated work in the transport systems of both countries. As part of this initiative, works are already underway on the conclusion of an agreement between Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey on the development of transit within the railway and sea links to the state border of China-Kazakhstan-Caspian Sea-Azerbaijan-Georgia- Turkey-Black Sea.

“Today, the biggest cargo transportation is carried out between China and Europe. The major part of these shipments is carried out by sea and takes 25-30 days. However, after putting the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway into operation, the delivery time of goods from China to Europe via our countries, will eventually be halved. According to forecasts of specialists, in the long term the volume of transit cargo transportation will reach 10 million tons or more in this area,” he added.

Azerbaijan will complete the construction of $1.2-billion new international sea trade port in Alat district with a capacity of 15 million tons of goods in mid-2015.

“I am confident that along with successful cooperation in the framework of TRACECA, these projects will allow Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan to turn into two key transport hubs in the Central Asia and Caucasus,” Zhumabayev said.

Azerbaijanis and Kazakhs are both Turkic-speaking nations and share close historical, religious, and cultural ties. Both countries are among the littoral states of the Caspian Sea and possess a common maritime border.

About 130,000 ethnic Azerbaijanis live in Kazakhstan.

The trade turnover between the two countries amounted to $371 million in 2013. Some 52 Kazakh companies operate in Azerbaijan, while 723 companies with the Azerbaijani investment are registered in Kazakhstan.

Kazakhstan invested $5.2 million in Azerbaijan in fixed assets in 2002-2013, while only in the last two years Azerbaijan invested $132.8 million of direct investment in Kazakh economy.