Azernews.Az

By Nigar Abbasova

Azerbaijan and France are keen to develop their bilateral cooperation in different industries.

A delegation representing Movement of the Enterprises of France (MEDEF) organization has arrived to Baku to explore the perspectives of development of business ties with Azerbaijan, the French embassy reported on May 10.

The delegation comprises businessmen representing different industries of utmost importance for the economy of Azerbaijan such as banking, construction, infrastructure, telecommunication, transport, logistics, municipal services, environment, power industry, tourism, consultancy, real estate, agriculture.

The delegation, led by Marie-Ange Debon, Co-chairperson of Azerbaijan-France Business Council and Senior Executive Vice-President of the SUEZ Group, is keen to create additional opportunities for discussions on different perspectives and new areas of bilateral cooperation as well as for the establishment of relations with local entrepreneurs.

The visit which is the six in succession is expected to provide for large meetings and discussions on important political and economic issues with high-rank representatives of Azerbaijani government, heads of large state entities, local companies and international financial institutions functioning in Azerbaijan thus giving a stimulus for the further development of cooperation between Azerbaijan and France in different spheres.

French companies are actively participating in the petrochemical, food, agricultural, machine engineering, tourism and other spheres in Azerbaijan. France also assisted Azerbaijan in launching its first telecommunications satellite Azerspace which is considered to be one of the most important developments in the history of modern Azerbaijan.

Some 91 French companies are involved in the oil and gas projects in Azerbaijan as subcontractors. At the same time, over 50 French companies are involved in the non-oil sectors' projects.

Every year MEDEF International organizes a number of high-level global summits and meetings in France and abroad thus enabling the entrepreneurs to study the priorities of leaders, decision making networks, the business community and the terms and conditions of business doing in countries around the world, finding new partners and ventures.

The board of entrepreneurs of Azerbaijan-France MEDEF International was established in 1992. The last visit of MEDEF members to Azerbaijan was in May, 2014 during the visit of French president Francois Hollande to Azerbaijan.