Baku, Azerbaijan, March 2
Trend:
Expansion of the interaction in the sphere of production cooperation is one of the most important areas of mutually beneficial cooperation between Belarus and Azerbaijan, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Belarus to Azerbaijan Gennady Akhramovich said in an interview with the "Market conjuncture" magazine, BelTA reported.
"The period of 2015-2017, marked by a drop in world oil prices, became a difficult for the Azerbaijani economy. Last year, the country's leadership was mainly able to overcome crises. In 2018, prestigious world financial organizations expect economic growth to begin in Azerbaijan," he said. "As for the export of Belarusian goods to Azerbaijan, in 2017, excluding petroleum products and fertilizers, it increased by more than 10 percent up to about $150 million. Approximately 340 product groups were supplied from Belarus, of which about 70 were new. "
During this period, the embassy was constantly looking for opportunities to increase mutual trade turnover. In general, the growth of exports was achieved thanks to the products of machine building (for the needs of cooperative industries), wood processing, meds and petroleum products.
"With the activation of our producers, the supply volume of goods of these groups to the Azerbaijani market can be significantly increased," the diplomat said.
Furthermore, the past year was marked by serious volumes of export of Belarusian services to Azerbaijan, and there are still great prospects for growth in this direction, as well as to build up Azerbaijani exports to Belarus.
"In particular, the embassy assisted in opening the first Trade House of Azerbaijan abroad in Minsk in May 2017," Akhramovich added. Moreover, certain privileges are envisaged for the supply of a number of food products to Belarus, which significantly increased the volume of imports of Azerbaijani products.
Furthermore, the commodity distribution network of producers is developing. Representations of Belavia, Amkodor-Baku Ltd., Belarusian Trade House and AzerSIS Ltd. and 45 dealers, representing more than 50 Belarusian enterprises are functioning in Azerbaijan. As a result, about 70 percent of all Belarusian exports to Azerbaijan during the 11 months of 2017 were delivered through the distribution network.