Azerbaijan , Baku / corr . Trend I.Khalilova/ Azerbaijan and Israel have signed an intergovernmental agreement to broaden investment and mutual defense that will boom economic relations between the two countries. Heydar Babayev, the minister of Economic Development, signed the agreement during his 18-22 February visit with Zivi Livni, vice premiere and minister of Foreign Affairs. Mr. Babayev met with ministers of infrastructure and strategic issues and discussed current bilateral relations and their prospective development. The two countries emphasized to deepen trade turnover while Israel remained one of Azerbaijan 's leading trade partners. 2006 trade turnover between the two countries was 700 mln USD. A considerable part of the sum was import operations.
Discussions also emphasized the importance of Azerbaijan 's goods and services and the two countries entrepreneurs should build close ties in this way.
Considering Israeli companies' interest in the Azerbaijani economy, the minister met with the heads of over 30 companies in areas such as water supply, information technology, banking, construction, agriculture, oil Azerbaijan 's south region water supply, information technology, industrial parks and health institution construction projects.