BAKU, Azerbaijan, Nov. 30
By Sadraddin Aghjayev - Trend:
German companies are interested in investing in the Alat Free Economic Zone, Head of Business Services Department at German-Azerbaijani Chamber of Commerce (AHK Azerbaijan) Fabian Zittlau said in his interview to Trend.
According to Zittlau, initial agreements have been already reached in this direction.
He noted that on Nov. 29 AHK Azerbaijan organized the first Sustainability Forum and business tour for representatives of German companies who came with a business mission to the country.
“Within the forum, we organized a market exploration trip of nine German companies with the specification in construction, transport and logistics sectors from Germany to districts of Azerbaijan within the framework of the BMWi (Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy) market development program for SMEs,” the chamber’s representative also said.
“This business trip included more than 70 B2B meetings with local companies from various fields, and meetings with the Ministry of Digital Development and Transport, Ministry of Emergency Situations, the State Committee of Urban Planning and Architecture, Azerbaijan Railways, Baku Metropolitan, and Azerbaijan Caspian Shipping Company. We visited Port of Baku, Alat Free Economic Zone, and Absheron Logistics Center,” Zittlau added.
He noted that the main focus of the discussions was possibilities for cooperation in engineering services, logistics planning, and management consulting.
“The delegation expressed particular interest in investing in the Alat Free Economic Zone. Preliminary agreements were reached with some of the above-mentioned stakeholders, which we expect will soon turn into large-scale projects in the country. Moreover, the parties agreed on organizing workforce exchange programs for reskilling and upskilling of the local workforce in Germany,” he said.
The chamber’s representative reminded that in October this year, its Executive Director, Tobias Baumann visited Aghdam city liberated from Armenian occupation [in the 2020 Second Karabakh War] together with the German Ambassador [Wolfgang Manig] to get information about the ongoing restructuring work in the city and Karabakh region and to discuss how the German technology and innovations can support these huge rebuilding projects.
“Besides, our four well-known German companies GEA Farm Technologies, Tauber LLC, Vollert Anlagenbau GmbH, WILO SE respectively representing agriculture, infrastructure and construction sectors took part in the “Rebuild Karabakh” exhibition, held this year in Baku. We were very glad to see how this platform enabled the exchange of best practices and connected the companies with the relevant authorities and bodies for further opportunities to engage in the upcoming projects. We are investing further efforts to foster bilateral economic ties between the two countries and hope to see some tangible results very soon,” concluded Zittlau.