Azerbaijan, Baku /corr. Т I. Khalilova / The first meeting of the Azerbaijan-Latvia intergovernmental commission on economic co-operation will take place in Baku on March 2, reported the Ministry of Economic Development.
Heydar Babayev, Minister of Economic Development, is the co-chairman from the Azerbaijani side and Yuris Strots from Latvia. The meeting agenda includes different spheres of economic cooperation as well as the development of relations between small and medium scale business, inter-regional ties and co-operation with the European Union, Azerbaijan's support to enter the World Trade Organization and organization of business forums. The Latvian side offers to establish co-operation between the two countries' central banks, in particular bank supervision and experience exchange in mortgage lending.
The Normative-legal base between Azerbaijan and Latvia consists of about ten agreements. The two countries have concluded intergovernmental agreements in the economic sphere on mutual investment protection, avoiding double taxation, economic and scientific-technical co-operation etc. Having such a legal base, the two countries are witnessing an extremely low trade turnover and almost zero investments between their countries. In 2005 the trade turnover between Azerbaijan and Latvia made USD 7 mln, 52% less against 2004.
After two business forums, the situation for 2006 slightly improved and foreign trade turnover reached USD 10.2 mln, an increase by 32%. Export operations hold USD 8 mln. Export trade classification includes dark alcohol drinks, petrochemical products, cotton and imports classification from Latvia dairy products, radio, communication equipments and agricultural vehicles and equipment.