Azernews.Az

By Amina Nazarli

Azerbaijani Agriculture Minister Heydar Asadov has met Japanese Ambassador to the country Tsuguo Takahashi to discuss the note to be signed between the governments of Azerbaijan and Japan on "Japan's Non-Project Grant Aid for Provision of Japanese Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) Products".

Asadov said the friendship and cooperation was founded between the two countries thanks to the efforts of national leader Heydar Aliyev during his official visit to Japan in 1998, adding these relations were successfully continued by President Ilham Aliyev.

Takahashi, for his part, expressed assurance that equipment produced by Japanese small and medium-sized enterprises would contribute to development of agrarian field and food supply in Azerbaijan.

Japan recognized the independence of Azerbaijan in 1991. The diplomatic relations between the two countries were established in 1992.

The Japan embassy in Azerbaijan started to operate in 2000. In 2005 Azerbaijan opened its embassy in Japan.

Since 1999 to 2013, Japan under the seven projects allocated about $34 million to Azerbaijan. The trade turnover between Azerbaijan and Japan amounted to $311 million in 2013.

In 2004, Japan allocated a grant in the field of land reclamation to Azerbaijan, which was a very important project, as the country needed a technique to clean channels in the regions, and prevent soil salinity.

Today two major Japanese companies Itochu and Impex are involved in the Contract of the Century. Leaders of Japanese business, Mitsubishi, Mitsui, Marubeni, and Sojits are involved in the energy and infrastructure projects in the country.

Azerbaijan considers cooperation with Japan in the field of high technology, particularly in the field of manufacture of innovative production, with their further entering the regional markets.

Until now, Japanese companies were involved mainly in projects in the energy sector, but in recent years their interest to cooperate in areas such as petrochemicals, oil refining, energy, medicine, high-tech and space industry has increased.

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Amina Nazarli is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @amina_nazarli

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