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Azerbaijan – strategically important partner for Alstom Transport

Business Materials 7 September 2015 22:36 (UTC +04:00)
For Alstom Transport, Azerbaijan is a very important country from a strategic point of view.
Azerbaijan – strategically important partner for Alstom Transport

Baku, Azerbaijan, Sept. 7

By Maksim Tsurkov - Trend:

For Alstom Transport, Azerbaijan is a very important country from a strategic point of view, Henri Poupart-Lafarge, president of the Alstom Transport, told Trend Sept. 7.

He said there are several reasons for Azerbaijan being very important for the French company.

"Firstly, there are many railway projects in Azerbaijan for main and suburban lines," said Poupart-Lafarge. "Secondly, we are very happy with how Alstom was received by the authorities."

"The company got future orders for locomotives and metro cars. We also have interest in being present in the urban transport both in Baku and other cities of Azerbaijan, in development of main railway lines, in the area of signaling, locomotives, rolling stocks," said Poupart-Lafarge.

He underscored that the company is also interested in the project for development of the Baku metro.

"The country has a market of both already operated metro cars and another promising potential market, namely the expansion of Baku metro lines," he further said. "This market offers an opportunity for further localization of Alstom's work in the country."

"Currently, we are discussing this issue without any clear plans, we communicate with representatives of the Baku Metro, and try to understand how we can optimally organize our work," said Poupart-Lafarge.

He added that currently the Baku Metro has plans for a gradual renewal of rolling stock.

"However, the ways to realize these plans haven't been set so far, it isn't known whether tenders will be announced for the whole rolling stock fleet, or some part of it," said the president of the Alstom Transport.

"We are discussing this issue," he said. "In general, we can say that there is a need to upgrade the rolling stock. This upgrade started in spring 2015 when Alstom supplied three rolling stocks to Azerbaijan for the Baku Metro."

He said that at present, the negotiations are underway with the construction companies regarding the Baku Metro expansion project.

"These talks have not finished yet," he said. "Our part of the work in this project is the rolling stock and it is the next stage. We have very good relations with Azerbaijan, which always fulfills its obligations. Currently, there are no serious problems related to financing. We are discussing the current situation and the optimization of payments as part of the contracts. The Azerbaijani government can also take an advantage of the guarantees of COFACE export credit agency. This increases the likelihood of payment under the contract on time."

He said that Alstom maintains its carriages around the world.

"Currently, we are discussing the localization of the work in Azerbaijan, including the localization of maintenance of the subway carriages and locomotives," he said. "The creation of the tram network in the city of Ganja is being discussed. But there is nothing concrete on this project. The infrastructure projects are usually worked out for a long time. In this case, it is not associated with any problems or funding."

Edited by CN

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Follow the author on Twitter: @MaksimTsurkov

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