Baku, Azerbaijan, April 3
By Azad Hasanli - Trend:
The lifting of sanctions, imposed on Iran by the EU and the US due to its nuclear program, will create new opportunities for Azerbaijani entrepreneurs in that country, said Farhad Mammadov, the director of the Azerbaijani Center for Strategic Studies.
He made the remarks April 3 at a conference titled "The challenges that create new opportunities."
Iran and the P5+1, which includes China, France, Russia, the UK, the US, plus Germany, reached April 2 a political agreement on Iran's nuclear program.
The EU and the US said they are ready to lift sanctions against Iran in the case of compliance with conditions put forward.
"The lifting of sanctions will create new opportunities for our neighbor and the Azerbaijani entrepreneurs will be able to take the advantage of them," Mammadov said at the conference organized by Pasha Bank and the National Confederation of Entrepreneurs Organizations of Azerbaijan.
He said the entrepreneurs from Azerbaijan will be able to invest in various sectors of the Iranian economy, such as transport and trade.
Mammadov said that in the circumstances, when Eurasia's major states have varying approaches to the development concept, that is, the EU's free trade area, Russia's Customs Union, which includes Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus, and the new trade area being formed in the East, Azerbaijan needs to understand which path should be chosen to secure the economic development.
According to stats from Azerbaijan's State Customs Committee, the trade turnover between Azerbaijan and Iran in January-February 2015 was $19.7 million, or 40.5 percent less than in the same period of last year.