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Azerbaijan, Germany eye further cooperation in non-oil industry

2 June 2016 15:12 (UTC+04:00)
Azerbaijan, Germany eye further cooperation in non-oil industry

By Nigar Abbasova

Azerbaijan is looking to cooperating with Germany in the spheres of pharmaceutics, manufacturing of machinery, building materials, information technologies.

"Further development of non-oil industry in Azerbaijan is a top priority for the government of the country," Samed Bashirli, head of the industry department at the Ministry of Economy, said at the forum on the "Innovative technologies for the improvement of the industry" organized by the German-Azerbaijani Chamber of Commerce.

The government supports the sphere by means of different exemptions, creation of industrial parks and districts, he added.

The head of department underlined that Germany is one of the principal partners of Azerbaijan, the volume of trade turnover between the countries in the last year amounted to $2 billion. The major portion of trade turnover figures fall to the share of industrial production. “German companies render their support to Azerbaijan by means of allocating credits for the infrastructural projects on easy terms,” he said.

Addressing the forum Michael Hoffmann, the representative of the German - Azerbaijani Chamber of Commerce, and chairman of the management board of Accessbank, said Azerbaijan turns from importer country into producer country. In this regard German companies display interest in cooperation with Azerbaijan. “We have great opportunities for cooperation in terms of current economic conditions,” he added.

He also spoke about the economic development strategy of Azerbaijan, mentioning that the key role in this sphere is attributed to the diversification of the country’s economy and industry as well as creation of export-oriented economy. Hoffman underlined that the German - Azerbaijani Chamber of Commerce will expand its cooperation with Azerbaijan to support further economic development of the country.

In accordance with the information provided by the Azerbaijan State Customs Committee trade turnover between Germany and Azerbaijan in January to April 2016 amounted to $355.25 million, which is 7.04 percent of the total volume of the country’s foreign commerce. As much as $250.87 million falls to a share of export and amounts to 10.24 percent of the total export volume taking the third place among exporters. The import amounts to $104.38 million, with a share of 4.02 percent of the total imports making Germany the ninth in the rank of importers.

Azerbaijan is currently engaged in the minimization of its oil dependence and diversification of its economy, which requires ensuring growth of non-oil sector of economy and increasing the volume of foreign investment in this field. Declines in oil prices have given new stimulus for Azerbaijan’s long-running quest to diversify its economy and develop non-oil sector.

German development cooperation with Azerbaijan (GIZ) is mainly engaged in developing the private business sector outside the oil and gas industry and assisting the country in establishing favorable economic and legal environment. The corporation supports the diversification of the country’s economy by advising Azerbaijan’s government on how to improve the regulatory environment, build a needs-oriented training system and strengthen export capacities.

The German - Azerbaijani Chamber of Commerce represents the interests of all German companies operating in Azerbaijan and all Azerbaijani companies operating in Germany.

Germany is Azerbaijan’s fourth most important trading partner, after Russia, Turkey and the United States. German exports to Azerbaijan, the worth of which amounted to $690 million in 2015, consist mainly of motor vehicles, iron and steel goods, machinery and production facilities.

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Nigar Abbasova is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @nigyar_abbasova

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz

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