Azerbaijan, Greece discuss economic coop
By Nigar Orujova
An Azerbaijani-Greek business forum has been held in Baku as part of Greek Deputy Foreign Minister Dimitris Kurkulas' visit to Azerbaijan.
The event, organized by Azerbaijan Export and Investment Promotion Foundation (AZPROMO), brought together representatives from 40 Greek companies engaged in a wide range of fields, including food industry, tourism, healthcare, pharmaceutics, construction and design, aviation, ICT, and oil and gas.
Addressing the event, Acting President of AZPROMO Rufat Mammadov spoke about the country's economy and conducive business and investment climate.
Mammadov noted the importance of developing the economic and trade relations between the two countries and invited businessmen to active cooperation.
In turn, the head of Greek-Azerbaijani Chamber of Commerce George Papadopoulos spoke about the expansion of economic relations and cooperation between the two countries.
Papadopoulos said such business forums give an impetus to the development of relations between the two countries' entrepreneurs.
About 100 Azerbaijani businessmen attended the event, which was followed by bilateral meetings.
The Azerbaijani-Greek business forum was opened in Baku on Wednesday. In his opening remarks, Greek Ambassador Ioannis Metaxas stressed the importance of the forum and praised the Azerbaijan-Greece relations.
Speaking at the meeting, Azerbaijani Industry and Energy Minister Natig Aliyev said the business forum had a positive impact on the overall relationship of the two countries.
"Energy occupies an important place in our relations, and we are now implementing new energy projects. The business forum will at the same time give a boost to our trade relations," he added.
In January, the Greek government outlined ways of expanding cooperation with Azerbaijan.
Azerbaijan has already studied the prospects of creating its own oil fleet and attracted Greek experts to provide advice on the issue.
Summarizing his visit to Azerbaijan, the Greek deputy foreign minister said its aim was to find new directions of the economic cooperation.
Kurkulas said at a press conference dedicated to the visit's results that during the meetings, the Azerbaijani side was informed that the economic crisis, which has been observed in Greece in the last three years, is drawing to a close and that growth of the economy is expected in 2014.
According to him, Greece is pleased to see Azerbaijani investments in its economy and hails the cooperation with Azerbaijan in the large-scale privatization campaign announced by the Greek government.
Kurkulas added that in order to develop economic ties between the two countries, solid regulatory framework has been created and some 20 intergovernmental agreements signed.
He said Greece was keen on expanding economic relations in the priority sectors for Azerbaijan including the non-oil sector, construction, tourism, agriculture and the food industry.
Kurkulas also said a regular meeting of the intergovernmental commission on trade and economic cooperation is expected in the first half of the year.
The latest meeting of the commission was held in Baku in 2011.
During the visit, the Greek delegation led by Kurkulas held meetings with Industry and Energy Minister Natig Aliyev, Azerbaijani state energy firm SOCAR's President Rovnag Abdullayev, members of the consortium developing Azerbaijan's gas condensate field Shah Deniz, Deputy Economic Development Minister Niyazi Safarov, Deputy Foreign Minister Mahmud Mammadguliyev, and Culture and Tourism Minister Abulfaz Garayev.