India keen to increase trade turnover with Azerbaijan
By Nigar Abbasova
India, one of the major and fastest growing economies in the world, is interested in increasing trade turnover with Azerbaijan, said Sujata Mehta, Indian Deputy Foreign Minister.
“India and Azerbaijan enjoy close and friendly relations with growing cooperation in many areas like education, IT, science and technology, and culture,” she told reporters during her Baku visit on July 28, mentioning that there is a good potential to increase the trade turnover between the two countries.
She also mentioned that the trade turnover between the two countries has decreased recently, due to the drop in oil prices, while the imports from India also reduced.
Mehta went on saying that the cooperation of the two countries in political sphere is very successful, as the two countries have already agreed on a number of issues.
“Azerbaijan, with its favorable geographic location may serve as a bridge connecting Asia and Europe, so this is the area where Azerbaijan and India can work together,” she said.
Highlighting the issue of the launching of International North-South Transport Corridor, which will connect Indian ports with Azerbaijan and Russia through Iran, Mehta said that the project has a huge potential for enhancement of business and trade in the region. She added that the project is expected to give an impetus to the development of trade and economic relations between Azerbaijan and India.
Agriculture is also considered to be one of the promising areas of cooperation between the countries, as India has a great experience in the sphere.
“Azerbaijan is keen to revive the cotton cultivation in the country. We can work together in this area,” Mehta said.
Earlier, Indian Ambassador to Baku Sanjay Rana said that India interested in the development of cooperation in the sphere of tea plantation.
Commenting on the cooperation in the sphere of energy, the diplomat said that the Indian company ONGC-Videsh Ltd holds share in Azerbaijan’s Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli oil field and the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline.
Nevertheless, Mehta said that the bilateral cooperation in the sphere of energy should not be limited to oil and gas, adding that there is the potential to cooperate in the sphere of renewable energy.
Speaking about possibility of launching direct flights between the two countries, the Indian official said that it would be of a great interest for the growth of tourism. She noted that for now, the launch of direct flights is not planned.
“With easy visa procedures and direct flights, tourism between India and Azerbaijan will develop perfectly well,” believes Mehta.
Azerbaijan imports many goods from India including pharmaceuticals products, engineering goods, automobiles and spares, agricultural and meat products and IT services, while Indian companies’ regularly buy oil from Azerbaijan.
Trade turnover between India and Azerbaijan amounted to $142.36 million in January-June 2016 (compared to $180.89 million in the same period of 2015), according to State Statistics Committee of Azerbaijan.
Trade turnover between the countries amounted to $815 million in 2015. Some $778 million of the total trade turnover accounted for the import of Azerbaijani goods in 2015.
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Nigar Abbasova is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @nigyar_abbasova
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