Azernews.Az

By Aynur Jafarova

Baku hosted the Azerbaijani-Iranian business forum on August 7, during which Shahin Mustafayev, Azerbaijani Minister of Economy and Industry said Azerbaijan and Iran have reached agreement on a number of important economic issues.

"Some 10 important areas of economic cooperation were discussed during the 9th meeting of the Iranian-Azerbaijani State Commission on Economic, Trade and Humanitarian Cooperation," the minister said. "In particular, important agreements were reached in the field of transport, namely, the reconstruction of the North-South corridor and increasing its capacity."

Mustafayev noted the two governments are willing to do their best in this regard.

"The main issue is the Qazvin-Rasht-Astara (Iran)-Astara (Azerbaijan) railway. The Iranian side completed about 80 percent of the construction of the Qazvin-Rasht line. Currently, the remaining part is being constructed," he added.

He went on to say that Azerbaijan intends to complete the construction of its part of the railway soon, which will be done in a short period of time.

"This will be an important part of the North-South Corridor," he added.

Moreover, Iran and Azerbaijan reached an agreement on cooperation in the field of land reclamation and power engineering. The main issues in this field are construction of the Ordubad-Maraza system and hydro-electric power stations.

"An agreement on cooperation has been signed as part of this project," he said. "The Iranian side expressed its readiness to accelerate the ratification in the Iranian parliament."

He added that the two sides reached an agreement on the construction of Khudaferin and Maiden Tower water systems.

"This is a very important project. Therefore, a decision was made to accelerate the signing of the document," the minister said.

For his part, Iran's Minister of Communications and Information Technologies Mahmoud Vaezi said Azerbaijan and Iran are currently creating the appropriate conditions for closer cooperation between business circles of the two countries.

"The governments of Azerbaijan and Iran are also working on a new draft agreement on mutual protection of investments," he said.

Vaezi highlighted the simplification of visa regime for the development of bilateral relations between Azerbaijan and Iran.

"Azerbaijan and Iran intend to develop bilateral cooperation and two presidents have confirmed this in their statements," he said.

He went on to note that Iran was one of the first countries which recognized the independence of Azerbaijan and the Iranian embassy began operating in the country.

"We are pleased with the development of Azerbaijan and its achievements in the political, economic and cultural spheres," the minister added.

He expressed the Iranian nation's concerns that more than one million Azerbaijanis are refugees and IDPs.

"We want the Azerbaijani people to live in peace and stability," he added. "We officially recognize the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan and support the peaceful settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict."

Vaezi also noted the Iranian and Azerbaijani governments intend to rapidly conduct huge work to prepare for Iranian President Hassan Rouhani's visit to Azerbaijan, scheduled for autumn 2014.

Later, Azerbaijan Export and Investment Promotion Foundation (AZPROMO) and Iranian Organization for Investment, Economic and Technical Assistance signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU).