AZCAN to duplicate vehicles from Canada to Azerbaijan: CEO
By Amina Nazarli
Azerbaijan International Defense Industry Exhibition (ADEX) opens its doors for the authorities engaged in this sphere on September 27-30. The four-day event will also present products of the AZCAN, the joint venture representing both Azerbaijan and Canada within the security and defense sectors.
The company specializes in the design and production of a wide range of armored vehicles including SUVs, cash-in-transit trucks, armored personnel carriers and other special purpose military and civilian vehicles.
Prior to the event, Azernews interviewed CEO of AZCAN company Roman Shimonov about the new manufacture.
Question: You have established the joint production of armored vehicles with Azerbaijan, the first ever manufacture between Azerbaijan and Canada in the military sphere. Can you please describe the prospects of this cooperation?
A.: AZCAN is a joint venture representing both
Canada and within security and defense sector. With more than 20
years of industry experience AZCAN founders aim to implement
Canadian and Azerbaijan expertise as well as local and
international labor and resources in order to deliver advance
solutions such as armored vehicles and other solutions for
civilians, special purposes in military use. The main goal of our
products is to provide with utmost level of protection the
operators and passengers in order to meet the highest international
standards according to first class assembly and certify armored and
modern electronic companies that we are implementing in these
products.
For a while we are looking for a new market that will allow us to
open new area which will be able to deliver and sale our products.
And the Canadian company is always looking to diversify our market
and Azerbaijan is a unique country that is close to many countries
that are very interesting for us. And in terms of logistics it is
very challenging and able to provide our plant with vehicles to
deliver with a short time so we have decided to find a new place
which will be able to have professional engineers, strong platforms
and capabilities. That’s why Azerbaijan is the best country for us.
We have approached several potential partners, and we have had
negotiations with different organizations as well. We have sold few
vehicles to the ministry of Interior of Azerbaijan, we also have
signed agreement with the Central Bank of Azerbaijan and won a
tender.
We are currently working on supplying armored to the Central Bank of Azerbaijan. It is obvious that among all the countries, Azerbaijan will be the unique country to build the platform that will allow us to duplicate our vehicles from Canada to Azerbaijan. We believe in a very strong economical platform in Azerbaijan and I believe many other companies are willing to be able to establish something that will allow them to produce those vehicles or other products here in Azerbaijan.
We also know that Azerbaijan, in terms of political relations with other countries, has very strong image and this is similar to Canada basically. Canada also has very good relations with other countries. We believe that these similarities in politics will allow us to build something that will allow us to have strong and useful product that will be competitive.
Q.: What are the key peculiarities distinguishing your product? What innovations do you offer your customers to make AZCAN a real brand?
A.: The purpose of these vehicles is to save
lives. And the most important goal for us is to be able to build
the product, that when the vehicles is under attack, the passenger
can escape safely and in order to do so we have to invest a lot of
resources into RND, into materials into finding right engineers
into the right vehicle that will allow to be able to escape from
attach and to save its passengers.
Over 20 years we are investing probably more than anyone else into
RND. By RND I mean research and development in materials, first of
all. At second, we have tasks, we basically have listed all of the
goals to meet the order that comply with international standards.
Currently we supply our products to NATO, the United Nations, to
different financial introductions, as well as Azerbaijani
authorities.
It is not only to find the right materials, but also to implement
other solutions, such as, for example, here in ADEX we will present
automotive gun that allows to identify the source of attack, and
then the gun can answer and should back automatically without the
involvement of the person. Secondly we will present here is
protection against chemical attack. Other solution that we are
presenting here is special radar that is produced by Israeli
company -- Rafael.
Q.: What about the production capacity of the new manufacture? Do you think to cover partially the increasing demand for Azerbaijani made armaments?
A.: Our main goal is not made one time deal and to sell products to the Azerbaijani forces, different authorities, but to create a platform that will allow us to create long term relationships and the goal is not to sell internally but to export to other countries. So we are not going to focus on selling our products to the Azerbaijani authorities, but first we try to export. And by export I mean to be able to produce more vehicles to hire more people, to pay more taxes and to have a positive effect on economy on this sector.
Our unique approach is not to make a deal and try to sell, but to create something that will allow to have mutually beneficial relationship that will allow to build those vehicles here that will allow the country to have its own know how to use the local experts form Azerbaijan and we have a lot of experts in Canada from Azerbaijan. One of the engineer of AZCAN vehicle was born in Baku Azerbaijan.
Q.: Where do you plan to open your production and do you
believe to find right consumer market? Azerbaijani manufacturers
for instance urge that they fail to meet the overall demand for
their products because of abundance of orders.
A.: We would like start the production even today.
But there are some things that we have to finalize first, and I
believe that right after the show it will be more clear when we are
going to start. Right now we are in the final stage on finalizing
the facility, and it is not only about the facility, but also the
machine and equipment that will need to build the vehicles here. We
are not going to assemble those vehicles here, we are going to
build all vehicles here in Azerbaijan from A to Z. By building a
vehicle it means to be able to engineer these vehicles. We have
already some of the products that have already engineered.
I think one of our strength is the ability not only to produce and sale vehicles, but to able to provide after sale support and maintenance after the sale. By after sale support I mean to be able provide with all of these pair parts to be able to maintain the vehicles in proper way, will last and serve the country for longer time. We are also providing with the training services in maintenance, in driving. And we are also aiming to build a workshop that will maintain those vehicles after the sale.
For its armored vehicles, AZCAN offers special applications and tactical equipment including large spectrum chemical protection, integrated remote weapon control systems, advanced drone and fire detection devices, remote explosives signal jamming and a wide range of riot control and crowd dispersal solutions. AZCAN’s armored vehicles are engineered to provide the utmost level of protection to their operators and passengers as well as meet the highest international standards due to their first-class assembly, certified armor and modern electronic components.
Being the first Azerbaijani-Canadian manufacturer of armored vehicles, AZCAN is one of the show’s key participants. At the large indoor (#2402) and outdoor booths, the company will introduce a new lineup of multipurpose armored vehicles, including personnel carriers and other tactical special purpose units featuring integrated security and defense solutions.
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Amina Nazarli is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @amina_nazarli
Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
