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UK keen to support Azerbaijan to develop renewable energy sphere

Oil&Gas Materials 21 October 2020 10:52 (UTC +04:00)
UK keen to support Azerbaijan to develop renewable energy sphere

BAKU, Azerbaijan, Oct.21

By Leman Zeynalova – Trend:

Sectors outside of oil and gas in Azerbaijan remain less familiar to UK firms and the diversification agenda gives an exciting opportunity to change this, Baroness Nicholson of Winterbourne told Trend.

“Representatives of the Food Safety Agency of Azerbaijan visited the UK in January and their visit has laid solid ground for future cooperation. The British government also funded three days training for a local agronomist in March to support Azerbaijan’s development of your agriculture sector.

“More Azerbaijan buyers taking advantage of UK Export Finance would also help closer collaboration between our two countries. UK Export Finance, a key part of the UK Government, has £4 billon in export credit available for Azerbaijan buyers. UKEF can help buyers in Azerbaijan to gain access to the financial support they can procure from the UK.

“We see the key priority as rebuilding our economies during and after the Covid-19 global pandemic. This must be the first task for us all particularly for those companies and institutions which have been worst hit.

“Energy remains a key priority but as you know from our previous work together, the UK is strongly determined to support Azerbaijan’s important diversification agenda. We seek to do more in healthcare, agriculture, tourism, education and retail, all highly important sectors of a more diversified agenda. Together with the British Embassy in Baku I stand ready to help in anyway I can. Despite the pandemic, we are already furthering some of these high value sectors and we all look forward to doing more over the next few months.

“The imperative is always to bring buyers and sellers together. I hope we can do more to encourage people to visit Azerbaijan – and Azerbaijanis to visit the UK – so that our business-people and producers can meet each other face to face. Zoom is a wonderful tool as it enables communication without physical travel but it can never replace the human touch.

“The UK is the biggest foreign investor in Azerbaijan; most of which is in the energy industry. I think it essential to attract investors in other sectors and this helps push forward the country’s diversification agenda.

“First, in order to secure investment project owners will need to invest there. I suggest Azerbaijan project owners spend time and resource in packaging investment opportunities in a way that appeal to international investors. However, the feedback I get from UK investors is they sometimes look elsewhere because it is not always clear how they will get a financial return. UK firms have developed extensive experience in helping to package together investment opportunities and to conduct feasibility studies. The Embassy is ready to introduce project owners to UK firms who have this expertise. I urge Azerbaijan businesses to take up this important and timely opportunity.

“Secondly, we must ensure that your policy framework does not appear to disincentivise investors. For example, a decade ago, the UK wanted to attract investors to create a Waste to Energy industry. We offered to work with industry to identify investment barriers and develop methods of overcoming them. A decade on we have a thriving Waste to Energy sector and the original investors are now looking to become exporters. Azerbaijan is now developing her renewable and energy efficiency regulations and the UK is keen to support Azerbaijan to develop this too.

“In the medium to long term, many analysts think the days of oil and gas prices of $70-80 a barrel are gone forever. Capital markets have shifted, and clean power stocks are up 45 percent this year. These global trends demonstrate the government is right to focus on diversifying its economy and the UK will support Azerbaijan with this important strategic priority,” she said.

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Follow the author on Twitter: @Lyaman_Zeyn

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