Azerbaijan, Baku, September 23 /Trend, E. Aliyev/
It is necessary for the customs services of Azerbaijan and Turkey to expand their relations, especially in fighting smuggling and drug trafficking, the Chairman of Azerbaijani State Customs Committee (SCC),Lieutenant-General Aydin Aliyev said on Monday during a meeting with the delegation led by Deputy Minister of Customs and Trade of Turkey Fatih Metin, a message from SCC said.
Greeting the guests, Aliyev expressed a satisfaction with the current level of cooperation between the customs officers of the two countries stressing the usefulness of regular mutual exchange of experience.
The head of the SCC expressed satisfaction with the annual growth of commodity turnover between Azerbaijan and Turkey and confidence in maintaining this tendency in the future.
Faith Metin thanked for the sincere welcome and expressed the satisfaction with the growth rate of Azerbaijan's economy.
According to Metin, there are opportunities for further increasing of commodity turnover between the two countries and its growth rate will increase after the commissioning of Baku-Tbilisi-Kars. He stressed a great responsibility of the two countries' customs bodies with the development of economic cooperation.
The Turkish delegation became familiar with the work of the Target Center established under the SCC. It was stressed that the Target Committee which was founded within the project for development of Azerbaijan's customs service envisaged by UN Development Program, gives opportunity for a single observation of customs procedures at all border crossing points of the country, which was made possible thanks to the installation of about 800 surveillance cameras.
Commodity turnover between Azerbaijan and Turkey amounted to 1.17 billion USD in January-July 2013. This figure was equal to $2.12 billion in 2012. Turkey is in the third place among Azerbaijan's trade partners after Russia and the U.S.