Azernews.Az

By Leman Mammadova

An Azerbaijani-Slovak business forum, organized by the Ministry of Economy and Azerbaijan Export and Investment Promotion Foundation (AZPROMO), was held in Baku Business Center on November 13.

The event was attended by Azerbaijani and Slovak officials, including representatives of about 200 companies operating in industry, energy, ICT, food, healthcare and other fields.

At the event, Minister of Economy of Azerbaijan Shahin Mustafayev spoke about the importance of relations with the EU, one of the key trade partners of Azerbaijan, especially emphasizing economic relations with Slovakia.

The Minister of Economy called on Azerbaijan and Slovakia to carry out joint projects that will contribute to the development of trade and economic relations by highlighting the potential for cooperation in the fields of industry, energy, agriculture, tourism, ICT, transport and etc.

At present there are 11 Slovak companies operating in Azerbaijan, including trade, construction, transport and others.

The trade turnover between Azerbaijan and Slovakia increased by 33 percent reaching $ 20 million for nine months of the current year compared to the same period of last year. However, the share of EU countries in the trade turnover of Azerbaijan was 42 percent ($ 9.4 billion) in 2017 and increased by 26 percent in nine months of 2018 and amounted to $ 9 billion.

Being on his official visit to Baku who attended the forum, Slovak Prime Minister Peter Pellegrini expressed his satisfaction with the visit and underlined that participation of a large number of businessmen in the business forum is an indicator of the importance attached to the development of relations.

It should be noted that this is the first official visit by Peter Pellegrini to Azerbaijan as Prime Minister of Slovakia. He has been appointed as the Prime Minister as of March, 2018 after serving as Deputy Prime Minister for Investments between 2016 and 2018, as the Speaker of the National Council in 2014-2016, as the State Secretary for Finance until 2014 and as a member of the National Council from 2006 to 2012.

Speaking on priority areas for cooperation between the two countries, Peter Pellegrini noted that Slovak businessmen are interested in cooperation in energy, renewable energy, machine building, chemistry, ICT and others, stressing that the business forum will contribute to the expansion of cooperation.

Noting that Slovakian Embassy will be opened in the near future, the Minister also said that a joint intergovernmental commission will be established between the two countries to raise relations to a higher and more efficient level.

The business forum participants were informed about the Slovak companies, and bilateral meetings were held among businessmen.

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