Azerbaijan, Baku, 18 January / corr Trend I.Khalilova / Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan are re-animating the economic relations. The first meeting of the Azerbaijani-Turkmen intergovernmental commission on the economic and humanitarian cooperation held in Ashgabat on 17 January, made a decision on the expansion of relations in the trade and economic cooperation, in particular, in the sphere of transport, communications, oil and gas, environment and humanitarian sectors, the Cabinet of Ministers said on 18 January.
Taking into consideration the low volume of goods turnover, which reaches $70mln in accordance with Turkmenistan's statistics, it was proposed to develop an intergovernmental agreement on mutual protection of the investments.
"Our investors, the construction companies, have a great desire to enter the markets of Turkmenistan, to participate in the operations in the Caspian shore," the Government said.
Several agreements will be developed in the transport sector, which will cover cooperation in the railway deliveries, as well as the opening of the sea and air passenger transportation. The decision was taken on the rehabilitation of direct train ferry between the ports of Baku and Turkmenbashi. The consultations on opening of the Baku-Ashgabat flight will be carried out between the civil aviation services of the two countries. The compromise decision will be more probably found for the return of railway carriages with cargo.
The Communications Ministry was offered to study the possibility of cooperation between Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan, for the construction of the Trans-Caspian segment of the Trans-Asia-Europe (TAE) fibro-optical cable highway. It will be possible only after the legal status of the Caspian is defined, the Government said.
Depending on the state of implementation of contracts, the next second meeting of the intergovernmental commission will be held in Baku at the end of 2008.
The co-chairs of the joint commission are Yagub Eyyubov-the First Deputy Premier of Azerbaijan and Khidir Saparliyev- the Deputy Premier of Turkmenistan.