Vilnius hosts second business forum as part of Eastern Partnership program
Vilnius, November 29 (AZERTAC). In the eve of the Eastern Partnership Summit, the second Eastern Partnership Business Forum has been held in Vilnius. The event aimed to establish new contacts, share experiences, discuss investment opportunities in partner countries and jointly implement specific Eastern Partnership projects.
An Azerbaijani delegation led by Minister of Economy and Industry Shahin Mustafayev attended the forum bringing together businessmen and officials from the member states, as well as representatives of the European companies and organizations.
Addressing the event, Lithuanian Prime Minister Algirdas Butkevicius said that “the summit will open a new page in the Eastern Partnership program which I believe will put our Eastern Partners on a steady path towards ever closer association with the European Union. Individual countries may have to travel at different speeds but the resolve and hard work will certainly bring anticipated results”.
Delivering a speech at the event Azerbaijani minister Shahin Mustafayev hailed the role of the summit in determination of new opportunities for expansion of cooperation relations, as well as strengthening the ties between Eastern Partnership participant countries.
The minister said that the investments were made in the Azerbaijani economy to the amount of $156 billion. Around half of them fall to foreign investments. Around 65 percent of all investments were directed to the non-oil sector. During the past five years, the annual volume of foreign investments in the non-oil sector exceeds the annual volume of investments in the oil sector by an average of 17 percent. Foreign investments in non-oil sector exceeded investments in oil sector by 25 percent in 2012.
According to Mustafayev, Azerbaijan intends to increase the share of non-oil sector in GDP up to 80 percent by 2020.
He noted Azerbaijan signed the agreements on avoidance of double taxation with 20 EU countries, the agreements on encouragement and mutual protection of investments - with 17 EU countries. The work in this direction is underway.
Eastern Partnership, as one of the priorities of the Lithuanian Presidency of the Council of the EU, is a natural choice, determined by the Lithuanian and the EU interest to have safe, stable, economically strong and pro-European Eastern neighbors. The goal is to have pro-active and efficient Eastern Partnership policy that would bring tangible results for these countries and their people. This could be achieved through the joint efforts of the EU institutions, EU Member States and Eastern Partners themselves.
Through the Eastern Partnership, the EU strengthens its bilateral and multilateral cooperation with the six Eastern European partners: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine, supports reform processes of these countries, and seeks to bring them closer to the EU.
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