Baku, Azerbaijan, Sept. 30
Trend:
Embassy of Azerbaijan in Switzerland has joined forces with the Joint Chamber of Commerce Switzerland-CIS for organisation of the New Silk Road Investment Forum in Zurich, Switzerland. The largest forum of Switzerland dedicated to the topic of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) facilitated the Embassy’s exchange with more than 100 participants representing well-known investors and business circles to attract Swiss investments into Azerbaijan.
Speaking at the event, Ambassador Hanum Ibrahimova of Azerbaijan underlined Azerbaijan’s support to BRI given the strategic location of Azerbaijan at the crossroads between Asia and Europe, listed factors conditioning this support and in this vein, highlighted the agreement to promote BRI signed during the state visit of President Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan to China in 2015.
The Ambassador of Azerbaijan spoke about regional projects implemented by our country, including the Baku-Tbilisi-Jeyhan and the Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum pipelines, the Southern Gas Corridor, as well as the East-West, North-South and South-West transport corridors promoted by Azerbaijan. She noted that Azerbaijan has the necessary infrastructure in place to become a logistics hub within these transport corridors. In this context, she shared information about the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway line, the Alat International Sea Trade Port, newly constructed airports and modernised highways. Moreover, she emphasized that Alat is the first port in the Caspian region committing itself to become a Green Port. She stated that, thanks to all these projects, the shortest distance for trade between Asia and Europe goes through Azerbaijan.
Ambassador has also noted that all of the abovementioned transport projects were materialized as the result of the reforms carried out under the leadership of President Ilham Aliyev and that further economic measures were being implemented to attract more foreign investments into our country. Then, the counsellor of the Azerbaijani Embassy Arif Mammadov made a presentation on the possibilities of Azerbaijan to become a logistics hub in Eurasia.
The event concluded with the presentation of Margareta Kiener-Nellen, President of the Swiss delegation to the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, who assessed the BRI from the perspective of the Swiss parliament.
