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Azerbaijan, Czech Republic need to diversify mutual trade – minister (Exclusive)

Business Materials 6 February 2018 20:53 (UTC +04:00)

Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 6

By Azad Hasanli - Trend:

Azerbaijan and the Czech Republic need to diversify commodity structure of mutual trade, Tomas Huner, minister of industry and trade of the Czech Republic, said in an exclusive interview with Trend.

“Azerbaijan is the strongest economy in the Caucasus region and thus a very promising business partner for the Czech Republic,” he said.

Since 2014, the Azerbaijani crude oil has accounted for over 30 percent of total crude oil imports into the Czech Republic, he added.

“Therefore, Azerbaijan is a strategic business partner for the Czech Republic as confirmed by the Strategic Partnership Agreement signed by the presidents of both countries in 2015,” he said. “On the other hand, this business relationship is very sensitive to fluctuations in the world economy and, above all, to volatile raw material prices.”

“Following the fluctuations in the crisis years of 2015 and 2016, economic relations have been stabilizing again,” he noted.

The trade turnover between the two countries in January-November 2017 grew 92 percent compared to the same period in 2016, he said.

In fact, it is not a sharp increase in the mutual trade but restoration of supplies of Azerbaijani oil to the Kralupy nad Vltavou refinery after the interruption of production for 5 months due to the plant’s shutdown in 2016, he added.

Many Czech companies already operate in the Azerbaijani market, he said.

These include LINET and Moravia Steel a. s. companies, engaged in modernization of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway corridor [the total value of the contracts signed by the two companies is $1 billion], the IVECO Czech Republic a. s. company that supplied 150 city buses for public transportation in Baku, CKD Blansko SMALL HYDRO, s.r.o., which constructed three water turbines for the Tahtakorpu water reservoir, and many more, he noted.

He went on to add that the commodity structure of mutual trade between Azerbaijan and the Czech Republic hasn’t changed for a long time.

While Azerbaijan mainly exports oil to the Czech Republic, the Czech Republic exports to Azerbaijan mainly market products, machinery and transport equipment and, to a lesser extent, chemicals, he said.

“Our business relations are very unbalanced and too dependent on hydrocarbons,” he noted.

That is why the two countries need to diversify commodity structure of mutual trade more in the future, which will bring great opportunities for Czech companies, he added.

Azerbaijan’s trade turnover with the Czech Republic amounted to $664.5 million in 2017, which is twice more than in 2016, according to the State Customs Committee of Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan’s exports to the Czech Republic last year amounted to $556.86 million [a 2.6 times increase for the year].

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