Azerbaijan, Baku, 2 May / Trend corr. I.Khalilova / The 5th meeting of the Azerbaijani and Austrian intergovernmental commission in the spheres of economy, agriculture, industry and techniques will be held in Vienna on 7 and 8 May, the Azerbaijani Ministry of Economic Development reported.
Heydar Babayev, the Minister of Economic Development of Azerbaijan, will be the co-chairman from the Azerbaijani side and Yohann Zaks, Austrian Minister of Economic Development, from Austrian side.
Under the protocol, the parties are to broaden their cooperation in the sphere of energy, agriculture, tourism, entrepreneurship and trade. This will take place amongst the businessmen of both countries. Brotherhood relations will be established amongst three Azerbaijani and Austrian cities - Baku-Vienna, Sumgayit-Lints and Nakhchivan-Stria. The issue on the expansion of partnership between Sumgayit-Lints and Nakhchivan-Stria will also be discussed during the meeting. The last meeting was held in Baku in 2006.
Trade turnover between Azerbaijan and Austria was $49.2mln for 2007. Export operations comprised $2.5mln and import $46.6mln. This increase has been observed in the implementation of the project Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan. However, the current trade turnover rate between the countries is still very low.
The opening of the Austrian diplomatic and trade entrepreneurship in Azerbaijan will enable trade and economic relations to develop between the countries.
There are 50 firms operating in Azerbaijan.
The official rate at 1 May is 0,828 AZN/USD
The correspondent can be contacted at: [email protected]