The opportunity for Czech companies can represent the fields that are in priority to be developed by Azerbaijan’s government, to diversify the economy and support the development of the non-oil sector, Marta Novakova, Minister of Industry and Trade of the Czech Republic reported.
“These are mainly agriculture, chemical and manufacturing industry, engineering, services (especially transport, logistics, tourism) and IT,” Novakova noted.
She stressed that great opportunities represented new projects focused on the modernization of the transport infrastructure, such as reconstruction of the road and railway network.
The minister went on to say that Czech companies could also succeed as suppliers in the field of pharmaceuticals, electrical engineering, consumer electronics and environmental technologies in Azerbaijan.
Novakova also underlined that there was a great potential for future cooperation in the field of renewable energy sources, further adding that technology of Czech companies might be applied in the renewable energy field, and improve the efficiency of Azerbaijan’s energy industry.
The Czech minister further pointed out that in Azerbaijan, emphasis was also put on the construction of sewage treatment plants, water treatment plants and cleaning of contaminated soil.
“As for joint-ventures, I know that both sides are ready to support steps leading to a stronger and more stable partnership between Czech and Azerbaijani companies in the aforementioned areas. We have agreed that joint ventures are one of the exciting alternatives of our partnership at the business level. We want to highlight this element in our discussions with the domestic business sphere,” she stated.
Novakova emphasized that untapped potential existed in many sectors and the key was to maintain the collaboration in energy sector and move more rigorously into other sectors in order to diversify business.
According to the State Customs Committee of Azerbaijan, trade turnover with the Czech Republic in 2018 amounted to $1.04 billion.
As compared to the indicator for the same period of the last year, the trade turnover between the countries increased by 36.6%, while the exports of Azerbaijani products increased almost 2-fold. (Trend/Business World Magazine)
