Baku, Azerbaijan, July 27
By Azad Hasanli – Trend:
Azerbaijan is a strategic partner of the Czech Republic in the oil supply issue, Czech Minister of Industry and Trade Jiri Havlicek said in an exclusive interview with Trend.
Azerbaijan is second largest supplier of oil to the Czech Republic after Russia, according to him.
“The current state of cooperation between Azerbaijan and the Czech Republic is very positive. The volume of mutual trade grew almost 90 times from 6 million euros in 1993 to 532.7 million euros in 2016. Based on this data, it can be said that Azerbaijan is the most important trading partner of the Czech Republic in the South Caucasus,” Havlicek said.
He noted that both countries have sufficient potential to further increase trade turnover.
“More than 80 percent of trade turnover between our countries accounts for oil and petroleum products. On the one hand, it means that Azerbaijan is a strategic partner of the Czech Republic in the oil supply issue,” he said. “On the other hand, our business ties are very sensitive to fluctuations in the world economy, primarily to commodity prices.”
Havlicek reminded that in 2015, the trade turnover between the two countries fell by 31 percent to 1.05 billion euros, compared to the record figure of 1.5 billion euros in 2014.
“Then in 2016, trade turnover fell by nearly 50 percent to 532.7 million euros, which was caused by a five-month shutdown of the refinery in Kralupy nad Vltavou, which mainly processes Azerbaijani oil. This clearly shows that our business ties are highly unbalanced and too dependent on hydrocarbons.”
“This year, business relations between our countries are beginning to revive. I am glad this is happening not only because of oil. Currently, large projects as the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway are being developed, and Czech Iveco buses as well as L-39 planes are supplied to Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan is a very reliable business partner for the Czech Republic as part of these and other projects,” he added.