Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 7
By Saba Aghayeva - Trend:
The Czech government has chosen Azerbaijan as a priority potential market for its companies and urged them to expand cooperation with the country, Azerbaijani ambassador to the Czech Republic Farid Shafiyev told Trend.
"The Czech government pins great hopes on the great activity of the Czech companies in such areas of Azerbaijan as the construction sector, engineering and transport infrastructure," the ambassador said.
The diplomat said that several Czech companies show interest in Azerbaijan's transport sector. The negotiations on the Czech companies' participation in the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway construction project are underway.
Shafiyev said that the Czech companies work in Azerbaijan with a total contract amount of about $1 billion. One contract, namely, the construction of the Baku-Quba highway in the amount of $300 million, has been implemented.
The diplomat said that the Czech companies also show interest in participating in the construction of one of the lines of the Baku Metro. The negotiations are underway.
"The Czech Republic is also open to Azerbaijani investments," he said.
"Foreign companies, including Azerbaijani ones, show interest in real estate in the Czech Republic, in particular in Karlovy Vary for the last ten years," he said.
Some mutual visits, including those at the highest level, are planned to be made in early 2015 to give an impetus to the development of bilateral ties.
The diplomat said that President of the Czech Republic Milos Zeman is expected to pay an official visit to Azerbaijan in February-March. This will give an additional impetus to the relations.
Another meeting of the intergovernmental commission on economic cooperation is expected to be held in 2015.
According to the State Statistics Committee, the trade turnover between the Republic of Azerbaijan and the Czech Republic amounted to $515.51 million in January-September 2014. As of the nine months, Azerbaijan imported goods worth $35.1 million, but exported goods worth $ 480.4 million.
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