Azernews.Az

By Amina Nazarli

Azerbaijan and the United Arab Emirates, enjoying huge opportunities to further deepen the bilateral trade and investment relations, held discussions to define the priority areas during the joint business-forum in Baku on October 20.

The UAE companies specializing in agriculture, food industry, construction, pharmaceutical industry, logistics, tourism, security, production of fire alarm systems, and beauty industry joined the forum, focusing on investments in non-oil sector, mutual tourism opportunities, imports and exports.

Azerbaijan’s strategy of diversifying income and further improving the business environment has helped the country to attract more investors, including from the UAE.

The volume of the UAE’s direct investments to the non-oil sector of Azerbaijan's economy is approximately $659 million, said Orkhan Mammadov, Head of Interstate Economic Cooperation Department at Azerbaijan’s Economy Ministry.

“Currently, 223 companies from the UAE are operating in Azerbaijan. The trade turnover between our countries, amounted to $58 million as of the end of the third quarter 2016, and this is 24 percent more compared to the same period of 2015,” Mammadov said at the event.

The official stressed that the economic relations between Azerbaijan and the UAE strengthened year on year.

“The two countries have established a strong legal and regulatory framework -- more than 30 official documents were signed, including the agreement on encouragement and mutual protection of investments, avoidance of double taxation and other important documents,” he emphasized.

Mammadov also mentioned the increasing tourism potential between the two countries.

“The simplification of the visa regime starting November 2015, led to the increase of the tourist flow from the UAE to Azerbaijan,” said Mammadov.

Over the first nine months of 2016, the number of foreign tourists visiting Azerbaijan amounted to 1.7 million. The number of tourists from the UAE alone has increased 34 times compared to January-September 2015.

Rufat Mammadov, Head of Azerbaijan Export and Investment Promotion Foundation (AZPROMO), for his part, agreed that the increasing number of tourists from the UAE may lead to improvement of business relations between the two countries.

“This year we witnessed a large influx of tourists from Arab countries,” he said. “A significant increase in the number of tourists from the UAE especially pleases us. I believe that this growth will improve business relations between our countries.”

Very often those, who come to Azerbaijan as tourists, think about starting a business here, according to him, as the country created all conditions and favorable business environment for this.

Azerbaijan should be seen not only as a market for selling products, but also as a platform for long-term activities, he added.

AZPROMO head went on to say that Dubai may become a hub for the export of Azerbaijani goods to other countries of the Middle East.

“The UAE is a traditional partner of Azerbaijan, and our companies show great interest for the Middle East,” he said. “Given this interest and numerous appeals, we are planning to organize an export mission to Dubai within the mechanisms to promote the brand “Made in Azerbaijan”.

He clarified that the main objective is to export Azerbaijani products to Dubai, as well as other countries of the region through Dubai.

Mammadov said that Arab companies show interest in Azerbaijani products, mainly in production of agricultural and food companies.

“Considering this, we also plan to put the country stand under the brand “Made in Azerbaijan” at one of the largest exhibitions of the region, Gulf Food, in 2017,” Mammadov said.

Overall, Azerbaijan and UAE enjoy fruitful cooperation in various fields and their mutual relations are developing both in the political, economic and cultural fields with ascending line.

Recently, the two countries agreed to establish a joint investment fund to facilitate the implementation of joint investment in mutually beneficial projects. The sides eye invest making in the areas that stimulate the growth of mutual investments and increase trade, particularly in agriculture, food processing, logistics and transport systems.

--

Amina Nazarli is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @amina_nazarli

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz