Baku, Azerbaijan, Dec. 20
By Anvar Mammadov – Trend:
Development of economic cooperation between the member countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) will be the main priority of Russia’s chairmanship in the CIS in 2017, the country’s Ambassador to Azerbaijan Vladimir Dorokhin told reporters in Baku Dec. 20.
The ambassador noted that economic cooperation has helped member countries of the CIS to survive the economic chaos that arose after the collapse of the USSR.
“The current challenge to establish economic cooperation is even more topical, as the decrease in the trade turnover between the CIS member states is observed under the influence of global economic processes,” said Dorokhin. “According to statistics, the total trade turnover between the CIS countries fell by 20 percent in the first half of 2016.”
He added that the way how statistics is maintained is also important.
"An interesting situation is observed between Russia and Azerbaijan,” he added. “Thus, in dollar terms, the trade turnover between Russia and Azerbaijan declined, while in physical terms, it increased.”
“In dollar terms, Azerbaijan reduced the export of agricultural products to Russia, while in physical terms, export increased by 25 percent,” he said. “The reason is that the prices are converted into US dollars, therefore, there are such differences."
He added that Russia will continue to expand the economic cooperation and the country has everything necessary for it, namely the Strategy of economic development of the CIS and the CIS free trade zone agreement.
"However, Azerbaijan has not joined the agreement and continues to cooperate at the level of bilateral agreements,” he added. “We will continue to eliminate existing barriers. I think we will achieve great success."
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