‘Azerbaijan is important partner for Poland’
Warsaw, April 2 (AZERTAC). Azerbaijan is a very important and needed partner for Poland, Vice-Premier, Minister of Economy of Poland, co-chair of the Azerbaijan-Poland intergovernmental commission on economic cooperation Janusz Piechocinski told Azerbaijani journalists.
The Vice-Premier said that traditionally good relations between Poland and Azerbaijan are continuing at all levels.
“Azerbaijan is a very important and needed partner for Poland especially today because it is a bridge of cooperation in the region. We believe in your economy and your country. For the past 20 years, it was hard for Azerbaijan to recover its economy so that not only natural resources could driving force of the country`s economy.
We looking at Azerbaijan with great hope as a Poland`s important partner. Polish firms, in particular, those operating in the energy and chemical sectors consider Azerbaijan as not only exporter of raw materials, they also want to upgrade this cooperation to the new level of investment, participate in processing your raw materials. This could a very interesting aspect of our further cooperation,” said the Minister.
He reported that the trade turnover between the two countries over the past year surged 20 percent to USD 153 million while the polish export shot up by 8.6 percent to USD 130 million, important by 4.5 percent to USD 20 million.
“We would like Azerbaijani goods to be shipped through Poland,” the Minister said.
He noted that Poland is gearing for the Poland-Azerbaijan economic forum.
“We seek expansion of cooperation in energy, agriculture, transport, environment protection, banking, finances, tourism, and youth exchange. We know that Azerbaijan is a big construction site where infrastructure and railways are being renovated. We suggest linking the Azerbaijani railway with the Iranian one in order to establish direct contacts with the Persian Gulf countries via Azerbaijan. It would be nice to connect railways of Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Ukraine with Europe. Every week, Poland sends two trains to China. The railway transport has good outlook,” he said.
Polish firms working with the railway equipment, production of buses are keen on the Azerbaijani market. They are ready to open their offices in Azerbaijan.
Azerbaijan has a great agricultural potential and I believe it is possible to use the Polish experience in organizing producers` groups.
“We want to enhance our cooperation in the oil and gas sector of Azerbaijan, in particular, in the natural gas one. Poland relies on not only the energy materials from Azerbaijan but also the participation in processing these materials on-site. It will be cost-efficient for Azerbaijan itself,” he underlined.
“We have a high level of international tourism. The Poles travel increasingly further from their homeland and Asia is becoming an attractive region for them. They want to visit Caucasus too. Azerbaijan is a hospitable, politically stable and secure country unlike your neighbors. This is an advantage.”
At the meeting with Azerbaijani journalists, the minister also told of the development of the Polish economy after its joining the EU. He provided the stats to prove that Poland was the Europe`s only country which did not suffer from the GDP fall during the global economic and financial crisis.
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