Azernews.Az

By Sabina Idayatova

The Customs Administrations of Azerbaijan and Georgia will sign an agreement on mutual cooperation, head of the Georgian Customs Administration Foreign Affairs Department Samson Uridia told journalists in Baku on Monday.

Uridia said the agreement will be signed during the Baku visit of the Georgian Customs Service delegation.

"The agreement is a good legal basis for effective cooperation between the customs administrations of the two countries, and will enhance the activity of economic operators and improve the quality of customs control," Uridia said.

He went on saying that the agreement has been prepared in compliance with the standards of the World Customs Organization.

"The essence of the agreement is that we want to define identical customs procedures, which are applied while leaving and entering countries and contribute to the reduction of their numbers," Uridia said.

According to Uridia, it will be a great relief for entrepreneurs.

"Under the agreement, we can send the declared data electronically to the Azerbaijani Customs Committee. These data will have the same legal status as in Georgia," Uridia said.

The Customs Administrations of Azerbaijan and Georgia are strategic partners and the delegation's visit aimed to strengthen the good relations, Uridia added.

Moreover, Uridia said the Georgian side has already started a pilot project with Turkey, which is turned from theory to practice.

On the same day, Head of the Azerbaijani State Customs Committee Aydin Aliyev received the Georgian delegation.

Aliyev said the trade turnover between Azerbaijan and Georgia is growing, which is evidence to the development of the relations between the two countries and in particular between customs administrations.

"If in 2009, the mutual trade turnover was at around $450 million, in 2012 it reached $700 million and in the first quarter of 2013 exceeded $200 million," Aliyev said.

According to Aliyev, Azerbaijan and Georgia are cooperating successfully within major international projects such as Baku-Tbilisi-Kars and Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan.

In turn, Head of the Georgian Finance Ministry's Customs Department Lasha Khuchishvili said economic and cultural relations between the two countries are at a high level.

"This is my first visit to Azerbaijan and it will contribute to the development of bilateral relations," Khuchishvili said.

Following the meeting Aliyev told media that the possibility of increasing the capacity of the Sinigkorpu checkpoint on the Azerbaijani-Georgian border also discussed between the parties.

"The Sinigkorpu checkpoint is operating in the region of Agstafa-Gazakh for pedestrians and vehicles right now. Despite the fact that it is being upgraded, there is still a need to increase its capacity. There are several junctions and we discuss which of them to pay more attention in order to eliminate the queue. If necessary, we will carry out construction work," Aliyev said.

Khuchishvili added that the parties established a working group to address problems at the checkpoints.

"After conduction of modernization at the Sinigkorpu checkpoint we will decide whether to open a new checkpoint. The new checkpoint can be operated in the Lagodekhi till the end of the year," Khuchishvili said.