Baku, Azerbaijan, Oct. 14
By Anakhanum Hidayatova – Trend:
The UK remains the largest foreign investor in terms of the country’s bilateral relations with Azerbaijan, and hopefully will remain the largest investor in this country further, UK Ambassador to Azerbaijan Carole Crofts told Trend Oct. 14 in Baku.
The UK is working closely with Baroness Nicholson (the country’s trade special envoy for Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan) on a number of issues discussed during her visit to Azerbaijan, the ambassador said.
Bilateral relations between UK and Azerbaijan remain as strong as ever, the ambassador noted.
The UK remains to be the destination of choice of Azerbaijani students, and English is not only a language of commerce but a language of education, academic research, technology and development, she said.
Crofts added that she is very fortunate and proud to be the UK ambassador to Azerbaijan.
A number of delegations from the UK are going to visit Azerbaijan soon, she said, adding that she can’t give out the details yet.
Azerbaijan will host the second meeting of intergovernmental commission on trade and economic cooperation between Azerbaijan and the UK in early 2017, Crofts said.
The Brexit has had an impact on the UK of course, but fundamental position is that the UK is and will remain a global trade nation, she noted.
So far, the UK has invested nearly $25 billion in Azerbaijan's economy, the predominant part of which was invested in the oil sector. But nowadays, Azerbaijan is interested in expanding economic cooperation with the UK in such areas of the non-oil sector as tourism, agriculture and investment.
The UK companies operating in the industry sphere have great opportunities for investments in the oil and chemical sphere of Azerbaijan.
The trade turnover between Azerbaijan and the UK amounted to 418.06 million manats for eight months of 2016, which is 1.5 times more than in the same period of 2015, according to the State Customs Committee of Azerbaijan.
Compared with the previous year, the export of Azerbaijani goods to the UK significantly increased. Thus, in the reporting period it amounted to 54.9 million manats, having increased by 11.4 times.
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