Azernews.Az

By Nazrin Gadimova

The Czech Republic invested more than one billion dollars in Azerbaijan's economy from 2002 to 2013.

This was announced by Azerbaijani Deputy Economy and Industry Minister Niyazi Safarov at the second session of an intergovernmental commission on economic, scientific-technical and cultural cooperation between Azerbaijan and the Czech Republic on April 25.

Co-organized by Azerbaijan's Export and Investment Promotion Foundation (AZPROMO) and Economy and Industry Ministry, the event was attended by representatives of 60 Czech companies from various fields, including finance, industry, environment, agriculture, energy and construction.

Opening the forum, Niyazi Safarov spoke of Azerbaijan-Czech relations and praised legal framework of the bilateral cooperation.

The Azerbaijani side has already prepared the draft regulation during working groups meetings. "Cooperation between our countries is being dynamically developed in all directions," he said. "We cooperate in agriculture, which is one of the priorities of Azerbaijan's economic development. Our countries cooperate in the field of transport."

Moreover, a draft agreement on international vehicular transportation is being drafted.

Touching on two countries' cooperation in the financial sector, he said the central banks of Azerbaijan and Czech Republic have established mutual ties.

"Czech banks allocated Azerbaijan loans totaling over $1.6 billion. There are 13 Czech companies in Azerbaijan, representing the transport and other sectors of the economy," Safarov added.

"The mutual cooperation is not limited," he said, adding that it covers health care and other areas.

Addressing the event, Vice President of SOCAR Elshad Nasirov said Azerbaijan annually supplies from 500,000 to one million tonnes of oil to a refinery in Kralupy (the Czech Republic).

"The shipments amounted to about 890,000 tonnes in 2011, and about 500,000 and 600,000 tonnes respectively in 2012 and 2013. We really appreciate the high quality of the equipment at the refinery in Kralupy. This allows no reduction in the quality of Azeri Light oil," he said.

Nasirov said Azerbaijan ensures about 26 percent of the Czech Republic's oil imports.

He also regretted that the work on developing the Odessa-Brody-Plock-Gdansk pipeline construction project is likely to be suspended under these circumstances.

"But this will not negate other prospects of cooperation with the Czech companies," Nasirov said, adding that SOCAR cooperates with the Czech Republic in equipment supply.

"The Czech companies can supply the appropriate units for the refineries being built in Turkey, two fertilizer plants in Georgia and Azerbaijan and a large refinery complex in Azerbaijan from 2017 -2018," he added.

Following the meeting, Niyazi Safarov and Deputy Industry and Trade Minister of the Czech Republic Jiri Havlicek signed a relevant protocol.

Havlicek said there is an appropriate ground for further development of cooperation, in particular in the fields of energy, mining, processing, transport, health and so on between Azerbaijan and the Czech Republic.

The trade turnover between Azerbaijan and the Czech Republic amounted to $305.03 million in 2013, most of which ($215.92 million) fell to the imports of Azerbaijani goods, according to the Azerbaijani State Customs Committee.

The country imported goods worth $89.11 million from the Czech Republic in 2013. As of the first quarter of this year, the trade turnover between the two countries reached $86.58 million taking into account the exports worth $76.54 million from Azerbaijan to the Czech Republic and imports of Czech goods worth $10.04 million.