Baku, October 10, AZERTAC

President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev has received a delegation led by Federal Minister for Transport, Innovation and Technology of Austria Andreas Reichhardt.

Welcoming members of the delegation, President Ilham Aliyev said:

- I am very pleased to see you again. I remember our meeting in Vienna, which was very fruitful and promising. I do hope that your visit to Azerbaijan is successful and we continue our close cooperation. I remember our meeting with Mr. President and Prime Minister. As you know, it was a very sincere and warm meeting. I think it was an important personal contact. We reiterated the importance being attached to cooperation between our countries and our readiness to expand partnership.

As you know, many companies in your country are our partners in various fields. As I told the Prime Minister, they play an important role in construction projects in Azerbaijan. They are very creative in terms of the new architectural style, as well as in the field of infrastructure. I am also glad that we have now entered an active phase of cooperation in the transport sector you are responsible for, and our plans are currently being implemented to connect Europe with Asia. In this direction, we have achieved good results, there is good progress. There is an East-West corridor. We receive goods from China and Central Asia, and all the work you do here in Azerbaijan related to infrastructure currently serves economic partnership and unity.

As you know, Azerbaijan has made large investments in the transport sector. There are six international airports, a modern railway system, new highways, the largest seaport in the Caspian Sea, of course, the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway project, the North-South transport corridor. Also this year we have already begun to accept goods transported from the North to the West. So we are talking about the North-West corridor now. Azerbaijan plays a very important role in this project, as we participate in the North-South and East-West corridors. The transport sector is becoming one of the key drivers of our future economic development. I know that our railway institution has established good contacts with Austrian counterparts. These are very encouraging steps. I am sure that during your visit to Azerbaijan all these issues will be discussed in detail and we will determine the next steps. Welcome again!

The Austrian Federal Minister for Transport, Innovation and Technology Andreas Reichhardt, said:

- Mr. President, thank you for your friendly words. We last met in Vienna. At that time, I was deputy minister, now I am the minister, but the topics have not changed. We are still trying to bring our economic sectors closer and develop joint projects. As we discussed in Vienna last time, our goal is to develop specific ideas related to some projects and attract world-famous Austrian technology companies to Azerbaijan. Later on, we want to introduce some specific ideas to you. We have a small but highly competitive business delegation here. Today and tomorrow we will hold bilateral meetings.