BAKU, Azerbaijan, June 19
By Leman Zeynalova – Trend:
Latvia and Azerbaijan have good potential in field of green technologies, Dainis Garančs, Ambassador of Latvia to Azerbaijan told Trend.
“Latvia is looking for cooperation opportunities in the IT sector, which is one of the most rapidly developing industries in our country. We also have a good potential in the field of green and environmental friendly technologies,” he said.
Garančs noted that these topics are going to be in the focus of Azerbaijani Minister of Ecology and Natural Resources Mukhtar Babayev’s next visit to Latvia after the pandemic restrictions will be eased.
At the same time, he pointed out that export of food and agricultural products is continuing even in these tough times.
“In 2019, these positions constitute more than 50 percent of goods delivered from Latvia to Azerbaijan. Work is underway on the preparation of the agreement on cooperation in the field of food safety between the Food and Veterinary Service of Latvia and the Food Safety Agency of Azerbaijan in order to further facilitate the bilateral trade in this sector,” said the envoy.
Garančs said that by now, the external borders of the EU as well as the borders of Azerbaijan remain closed for regular passenger traffic thus very much curbing the cooperation in the service sector, which was usually exceeding one-third of the total bilateral trade turnover.
“Bilateral trade of goods showed positive dynamics in January-February of 2020, i.e. before the COVID-19 restrictions were introduced, but I can only guess how results of the 2nd quarter would look like since official statistics is not available yet,” said the ambassador.
He pointed out that every crisis presents challenges and opportunities.
“Both of them were discussed on 10th of June during the video meeting between Co-Chairs the bilateral Intergovernmental Commission on economic, scientific, technical and cultural cooperation –Talis Linkaits, Minister of Transport of Latvia, and Mukhtar Babayev, Minister of Ecology and Natural Resources of Azerbaijan. Following COVID-19, we should prepare for the “new normal”,” added Garančs.
---
Follow the author on Twitter: @Lyaman_Zeyn