Azerbaijan, UAE to explore coop prospects
By Seymur Aliyev
Azerbaijan and the United Arab Emirates will discuss prospects of cooperation during a joint business forum in Baku on Wednesday, the Azerbaijani export and investment promotion agency, AZPROMO, said on its website.
The UAE delegation will be represented by companies operating in sectors such as construction, agriculture, food industry, aviation, education, tourism, trade, metallurgy, waste management, as well as the oil sector.
The business forum will be held at the Four Seasons Hotel with the support of AZPROMO and Azerbaijan's Economic Development Ministry.
Vesti.az news website last week quoted Azerbaijani Ambassador to UAE Elkhan Gahramanov as saying that the trade turnover between the two countries will reach $300 million in the first nine months of this year, which is 24 percent more than in the same period of last year.
Gahramanov said the UAE invested $200 million in Azerbaijan from 2002 to 2012, while Azerbaijani state oil company SOCAR invested $60 million in oil and textile projects in the state of Fujairah.
Director General of the Dubai Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Hamad Buamim, said last week that in 2011 non-oil commodity turnover between Azerbaijan and the UAE reached 1.62 bln dirham ($442 mln). In 2010 the figure was 218 mln dirham ($59.6 mln).
Buamim also noted that 218 Azerbaijani enterprises are currently operating in the UAE.