Azerbaijan-Italy business forum held in Baku
Baku, November 13 (AZERTAC). An Azerbaijan-Italy business forum has been in Baku as part of the visit of an Italian delegation headed by Carlo Calenda, Deputy Minister for Economic Development. The forum was attended by representatives of 300 local and Italian companies. The main objective of the forum is to introduce Azerbaijani and Italian entrepreneurs to each other and offer opportunities for the establishment of mutual business ties.
Addressing the forum, Deputy Minister of Economy and Industry of Azerbaijan Niyazi Safarov gave detailed information about the current state of the country’s economy, major development indicators. He said the forum will contribute to strengthening the economic cooperation between the two countries. Safarov said Baku is interested in Italian entrepreneurs’ participation in Azerbaijan’s economy, and that this especially concerns the non-oil sector, which was declared priority by the government. Niyazi Safarov said Azerbaijan’s non-oil sector has increased by 2.7 times in the past 10 years, adding there is broad potential for foreign investments. ‘Totally, up to now the Italian companies have invested $47.5m in Azerbaijan’s economy. Moreover, Italy is the biggest foreign trade partner of Azerbaijan.”
Carlo Calenda said both sides are satisfied with the development in the field of foreign trade, but the same can not be said about mutual investments. Calenda believes that the forum has a great role in this, and appropriate bilateral meetings have to be held.
“We expect concrete bilateral talks, concrete results from this forum,” he said.
Speaking at the forum, Azerbaijan’s ambassador to Italy Vagif Sadigov, Chief of Azerbaijan Export and Investment Promotion Foundation (AZPROMO) Rufat Mammadov and President of the Italian Trade Promotion Agency (ICE) Riccardo Maria Monti have made presentations on Azerbaijan’s economy and informed the participants about some promising spheres of cooperation in the non-oil sector, especially in agriculture, food industry, alternative energy, tourism, Sumgayit Technological Park and Balakhani Eco-Industrial Park.
Azerbaijan Export and Investment Promotion Foundation and Italy’s Organization for Promotion and Internationalization of Enterprises signed a memorandum of understanding.
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