Azerbaijani, Kazakh customs to expand co-op
By Nigar Orujova
Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan plan to expand foreign trade operations.
The international trade development between the countries is envisaged in the bilateral engagement plan for 2015-2016 signed in Baku on February 9.
The Chairman of Azerbaijani State Customs Committee Aydin Aliyev and Daulet Ergozhin, Head of the State Revenue Committee under the Finance Ministry of Kazakhstan, signed the document.
“Kazakhstan is an important economic partner of Azerbaijan,” Aliyev said. “But the trade turnover between the two countries is just hundreds of millions which is not a big amount.”
He said that both countries have great potential to increase the trade turnover.
“Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan are fraternal countries,” Ergozhin said. “So, the countries must promote the trade, especially, international trade and mutual supplies. The signed document is one of the actions taken in this direction.
According to the State Customs Committee of Azerbaijan, the trade turnover between Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan amounted to $250.9 million as of 2014. Around $221.06 million accounted for the import from Kazakhstan to Azerbaijan and $29.8 million – the export to Kazakhstan.
Kazakhstan invested $5.2 million in Azerbaijan in fixed assets in 2002-2013. On the other hand, over the last two years Azerbaijan invested $132.8 million of direct investment in Kazakh economy.
The guests expressed their interest in using Azerbaijan’s experience in the field of information technologies in the customs area. A Kazakh delegation reviewed the activity of the "Hedef" Center ("Purpose") of the General Customs Administration on Air Transport.
"We are very pleased with Azerbaijan’s technological breakthrough,” Ergozhin said. “We intend to ask to share this experience with us to create the same information system in Kazakhstan."
The purpose of the center is construction of the customs service on air transport based on modern technologies to strengthen the fight against smuggling.
This center involves the installation of the video surveillance systems at the international airports of Azerbaijan, namely, at the Heydar Aliyev International Airport and the airports in Ganja, Lankaran and Gabala to improve the quality of customs services.
The information collected with the help of these systems will be processed in the center established in the administrative building of the General Customs Administration on Air Transport.
The Hedef Center will serve to improve the efficiency of customs services, when the passengers and goods transported by air cross the state border.
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Nigar Orujova is AzerNews’s staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @o_nigar
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