Azernews.Az

By Nazrin Gadimova

Based on a background of mutual interest, the potential for cooperation between Azerbaijan and Lithuania is very high in many areas, Azerbaijan's Ambassador to Lithuania Hasan Mammadzade told Azerbaijani journalists in Vilnius.

"Perspective fields of cooperation between the two countries are agriculture, information technology, medicine and education," Mammadzade said.

Speaking about the cooperation in the field of information technology (IT), Mammadzade said that there is the greatest potential in this area. He also said that in post-Soviet time, Lithuania was one of the leaders in the field of IT and now has excellent experience in programming, implementation of IT in banking, services, insurance, as well as in e-government.

According to the ambassador, Azerbaijan, in turn, pays a lot of attention to this area and is taking concrete steps towards its development. In this regard, it is committed to leadership in the region as well. Azerbaijan has declared 2013 the Year of information and communication technologies. Moreover, the University of Information Technology was created in Baku in 2013, and the country wants to attract Lithuanian experts in the field.

"Within the framework of cooperation, Lithuania may also gain from the experience of Azerbaijan in this area," said the ambassador, referring to the issue of bilateral cooperation in this sphere.

The ambassador also mentioned agriculture, energy, medicine, education and tourism as perspective spheres of cooperation. Speaking about the agricultural sector, the ambassador said that Lithuanian dairy and meat products are in demand in the European markets and particularly in Azerbaijan.

Mammadzade said that energy was a perspective area for cooperation, and that Lithuania being dependent on a single source of supply aims to be more diversified. In turn, Azerbaijan is interested in diversifying export routes for its gas. The ambassador said that Azerbaijan may become a source of supply for Lithuania, but there are a number of technical issues in the way.

Speaking on bilateral cooperation, Mammadzade also mentioned the medical field.

"Lithuania has recently made ​​considerable progress in the field of medicine. This year a unique operation on the heart was carried out in Vilnius for the first time in the world. There are also prospects for cooperation in this area," he said.

Referring to the education sector, Mammadzade said that in the past year, five Lithuanian universities were included in the list of schools participating in the State Program for study of Azerbaijani youth abroad for 2007-2015. A high measure of cooperation in this sector is demonstrated by the 180 Azerbaijani students studying abroad there.

The sphere of tourism is another priority area for cooperation between the two countries, the ambassador said. He mentioned an international twinning program and the project on consulting services for the development of the Naftalan resort as part of this program. Providing consultative assistance to Azerbaijan, Lithuania will share its experience from its famous Druskininkai resort.

Currently the Azerbaijan-Lithuania inter-parliamentary friendship group as well as the intergovernmental commission on cooperation between the two countries continues work. Its third meeting was held in Vilnius this year and the next year it is planned to be held in Baku.

According to statistics of Azerbaijan's State Customs Committee, foreign trade turnover between Azerbaijan and Lithuania increased by 9.4 percent in January-September 2013 compared to the same period last year and reached $17.58 million. During 2013, Azerbaijan's imports increased by 12.2 percent and reached $15.7 million, while exports decreased by 9.5 percent and reached $1.9 million.