Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 6
By Seba Aghayeva - Trend:
Kuwait intends to expand cooperation with Azerbaijan in the field of agriculture, Azerbaijani ambassador to Kuwait Tural Rzayev told Trend Feb. 5.
Kuwait, which imports 95 percent of agricultural products from abroad, intends to establish closer cooperation with Azerbaijan in the agrarian sector.
"The business of Kuwait is already represented on the agricultural market of Azerbaijan," he said.
"Some businessmen from Kuwait have already established farms in the districts of the country by renting land areas," he said. "They intend to further develop the cooperation in this sphere."
The diplomat said that there are good prospects for economic cooperation between the two countries.
"Azerbaijan has great potential to export its products to Kuwait," Rzayev said.
"The Kuwaiti markets offer a lot of products made in Azerbaijan, namely, carpets, agricultural products supplied here not directly but through the third countries: Iran, Turkey and Dubai," the diplomat said. "The matter rests in a lack of direct flights between the two countries. The lack of direct flights affects the growth of trade turnover between the two countries."
He expressed hope that initiating of a direct flight, being discussed by both countries, will have a positive impact on the development of trade relations and the growth of the tourist flow.
Rzayev called tourism a promising area for cooperation between Azerbaijan and Kuwait.
"More than 1,000 Kuwaiti tourists visited Azerbaijan in 2014," he said. "Taking into account the first European Games in Baku this year, their number will increase."
The ambassador said Kuwait's investments in the construction of a high-rise residential building as part of the 'Baku White City' project have become another platform for the two countries' cooperation.
The diplomat further noted that in April 2015, the foundation of the 'Kuwait Tower' will be laid, adding that this is the Kuwaiti investors' first project in the 'Baku White City'.
AVEY, a company with 100-percent Kuwaiti capital invested in the project for construction of a residential building near one of the oldest parks in Baku, the Nizami Park, which is now a part of the 'Baku White City' project.
The urban project 'Baku White City' is being realized under the Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev's decree on the approval of the "Plan of complex measures to improve the environmental situation in the Republic of Azerbaijan in 2006-2010."
The diplomat went on to add that the intergovernmental commission on trade and economic cooperation is the main platform for discussing the two countries' cooperation.
On the Kuwaiti side this commission is headed by the first deputy prime minister and the foreign minister, Sheikh Sabah Khaled Al-Hamad Al-Sabah, and the Azerbaijani side is led by the Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov.
The committee's meetings are held every two years. This year Kuwait will host the third meeting of the intergovernmental commission. The previous meeting was held in February 2013 in Baku.
In 2014, the trade turnover between Azerbaijan and Kuwait stood at $433,290 increasing six times compared to the year before last, according to Azerbaijan's State Statistics Committee.
Edited by SI
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