Azernews.Az

By Amina Nazarli

Iran and Azerbaijan are planning to cooperate in exporting jointly produced commodities to a third country.

Governor General of Ardabil Province Majid Khodabakhsh announced about this while talking to reporters in Baku on October 19.

He said that Ardabil, for example, can exports potato to Azerbaijan and a joint venture can convert it into chips for exporting to a third country, like Russia.

Ardabil and Azerbaijan have common borders with two checkpoints and customs.

Pointing upon the common cooperation areas between Ardabil Province and Azerbaijan and also friendly ties between the two countries, the Ardabil governor said that these factors give an opportunity for the sides to increase the investments between the two countries.

Khodabakhsh also mentioned the existing capabilities in Ardabil and proposed exporting power from Ardabil to Azerbaijan.

“There are many firms in Ardabil that can import materials from Azerbaijan including wood products,” he said.

As part of his visit to Azerbaijan, Majid Khodabakhsh was received by President Ilham Aliyev and Economy Minister Shahin Mustafayev.

The history of relations between Iran and Azerbaijan has a particular specificity, causing all stages of the development of bilateral relations. The present Iranian administration’s policy of improving international relations, Tehran’s pursuit of win-win situations, and a political will shared by Iran and Azerbaijan have improved the chances of growing economic ties between the two neighboring countries.

The volume of trade turnover between the two countries soared by 70 percent over the first seven months of the current year.

The trade turnover between Azerbaijan and Iran amounted to $105.7 million in January-July 2016, more than $77 million of which accounted for imports from Iran, according to Azerbaijan’s State Customs Committee. Azerbaijan's exports to Iran almost doubled to $14.4 million in the first quarter of 2016, while imports increased from $19.4 million in 2015 to $27 million in 2016.

Agriculture, banking sector, pharmaceutics, as well as cooperation in the international North-South transport corridor are the main areas that the two states are focused on.

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