BAKU, Azerbaijan, Sept. 21
By Leman Zeynalova – Trend:
Azerbaijan has contributed to the European energy architecture and diversification of energy sources and routes to Europe, Elchin Gasymov, Deputy Head of Mission at Embassy of the Slovak Republic in Baku, told Trend.
“Launching the Trans Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline (TANAP) in the end of 2019 as well as completion of the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) in 2020 will help to enhance European energy security. These pipelines put Azerbaijan on the map of important European energy sources,” he said.
As for the prospects for cooperation in the renewable energy sphere, Gasymov said this area provides a broad spectrum for investment cooperation.
“We hope that Azerbaijan can explore investment opportunities in Slovakia and vice versa. Our diplomatic mission will at-most contribute to that course”.
“To push ahead with economic cooperation, it is important to finalize respective agreements in economic field as an important precondition for intensifying economic cooperation. We are talking about economic cooperation agreement, investment protection agreement and double taxation avoidance agreement”.
“As to the prospects of our bilateral cooperation, we see a big potential in the fields of energy supplies, participation in modernization of Azerbaijani transport infrastructure, cooperation in automotive industry, agriculture, health pharmacy and care, as well as education exchanges and tourism”.
“In the first quarter 2020, while the coronavirus was not in a full swing yet, the mutual trade between Slovakia and Azerbaijan achieved nearly 9.5 million euros. Heavily in the positive balance of your country. This was mainly due to Azerbaijan export of petrochemical products that reached almost 9 million euros. Official statistics of the second quarter 2020 are not available at the moment but according unofficial data the Azerbaijani export of petrochemical products further continued and pandemic had no serious impact in this field”.
“The real pandemic´s impact on our trade is connected with the trade diversification efforts. Quarantine measures have not allowed to diversify our trade and to develop new promising areas of economic cooperation in agriculture, automotive industry, pharmacy, health care and in infrastructure projects. In this sense, the current level of trade turnover is far from being exhausted. Existing potential is huge,” said the Gasymov,
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