Azernews.Az

Leading international business and consultancy company The Business Year (TBY) and the Director of Azer-Ilme, Vidadi Muradov, held a business meeting last Friday to discuss expanding business links in Eastern markets and future growth strategies for the company, which specializes in making traditional, hand-made Azerbaijani carpets. Gulay Sultan, Country Manager, and Ruben Martinez, Country Editor, met with Muradov at Azer-Ilme’s factory and art gallery.

Muradov stated that his main objectives were to expand the company’s market activities to countries such as Japan and South Korea along the ancient Silk Route, raise Azer-Ilme’s current export figures to the US and Europe, and develop a network of carpet-making centers to teach Azerbaijani youth the secrets of producing hand-made Azerbaijani carpets.

The Director of Azer-Ilme also stressed the importance of the new transport infrastructure that is being built at both Baku Sea Port and Heydar Aliyev International Airport. "These new facilities will help to enhance the local economy by promoting business deals between Azerbaijani companies, especially in the maritime sector," he said. "Also they will help to attract more foreign investors and a larger number of tourists to Azerbaijan."

Other topics included the company’s role in helping to diversify the Azerbaijani economy, the importance of promoting Azeri culture abroad, and the impact of Eurovision 2012 on the country.

After the success of TBY’s first publication on Azerbaijan’s economy, its research team is back in the country preparing a 2012 edition. The team is in the process of conducting more than 200 face-to-face interviews with Azerbaijan’s top decision makers to better understand and more accurately reflect the business sentiment in the country.

The research will be published under the title The Business Year: Azerbaijan 2012, and will be one of the most comprehensive reviews of the Azerbaijani economy published internationally. The target readership of the publication includes top executives, policy makers, and media representatives around the world.