Baku, Azerbaijan, March 4
By Matanat Nasibova – Trend:
The strategic plans for the development of national economies of Russia and Azerbaijan have partially coincided recently, Russian expert in economic issues Alexander Karavayev said.
Karavayev made the remarks in Baku during the Moscow-Baku video conference entitled "Economic and Investment Cooperation of Azerbaijan and Russia: New Points of Growth" at the press-center of Trend news agency on March 4.
“The obvious coincidence is that Russia’s approved national projects in 12 spheres of socio-economic development practically coincide with the implementation of the programs of road maps for the development of the Azerbaijani national economy and the next stage of the program for the socio-economic development of regions,” he added.
"It turns out that many projects to be implemented within these national tasks affect each other,” Karavayev said. “They can give rise to the joint projects in the field of transport communications, industrial development, socio-economic ties in terms of the development of services, tourism, which are connected in general, with the development of the post-Soviet Union regional economy.”
“That is, the matter rests in interaction in the region as a whole, rather than the bilateral cooperation,” he said. “The issue is how Azerbaijan affects the EEU, the projects that Azerbaijan is implementing with Kazakhstan, Belarus and how this affects the whole Caspian projects."
"In short, on the one hand, the beginning of a new stage of modernization is as an attempt to intensify the advantages that were achieved in the Soviet period,” he said. “I mean the complementarity of our economies that have already developed after the collapse of the Soviet Union. In particular, the matter rests in the agrarian processed products, which are supplied to the Russian markets. This means that Azerbaijani big holdings interacting with the Russian trade networks are entering the markets."
“The projects related to obtaining high degrees of processing in the field of petrochemistry can be mentioned as an example of bilateral cooperation,” Karavayev said.
"This direction is purposefully strengthened,” he said. “I think that there will be some new joint ventures every year that will strengthen the line on commercial and industrial cooperation. The second direction is weaker. The matter rests in the creation of completely new industries and entering of our economies to some new levels that have not yet been demonstrated in practice.”
“Interaction in the military-industrial complex may be one of the options because many technologies, the creation of composite materials for unmanned aerial vehicles, are associated with the funds, which the government allocates plus some private corporate investments,” Karavayev added. “I think that it would also be possible to find some opportunities between Russia and Azerbaijan in this direction."
“The third area includes services, tourism and the creation of new e-interaction sites in the field of trade,” he said.
"I think that there may be the exact interests, rather than the potential ones,” Karavayev said. “As for Azerbaijan’s developing tourism sector, it is obvious that the interest is mutual, it has been already determined and will be further increased."
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