Belarusian Prime Minister Roman Golovchenko met with Ambassador of Azerbaijan to Belarus Ulvi Bakhshaliyev to discuss the bilateral cooperation in construction, urban planning, industry and agriculture in Minsk on 9 December, Report informs via BelTA.
"You have already held a number of meetings and negotiations and, I think, have made an opinion of the industrial and agricultural potential of Belarus and the priority areas for the Belarusian-Azerbaijani cooperation. The field for your work as a diplomat is very extensive. I hope that your tenure will be successful and will contribute to the development of our trade and economic cooperation. Despite the coronavirus pandemic and the crisis in the global economy, our indicators are very good. In 2020, we did well in trade. In January-October of this year, the trade rose by another 20% thanks to joint efforts," Roman Golovchenko noted.
In his words, Belarus and Azerbaijan have been implementing projects of industrial cooperation. Supplies of machine sets of Belarusian tractors to Azerbaijan are on the rise. "We are also working on a number of areas, including construction and urban planning. There are contractual documents between our design institutes to make plans for the development of cities in Azerbaijan. I hope that the next meeting of the intergovernmental commission will be held in the very near future. In my opinion, we need to intensify the participation of Belarusian organizations in the restoration of Azerbaijan infrastructure," the prime minister said.
"I believe there is a good potential for Azerbaijan to increase supplies of fruit and vegetables to Belarus, especially in light of our ban on the import of a number of food products from the countries that have imposed sanctions on Belarus," Roman Golovchenko added.
"We are grateful to Azerbaijan for the support of Belarus and the Belarusian people, which we always feel both on the international area and in bilateral relations," the prime minister said.
In January-October 2021, the trade between the two countries amounted to $442 million, up 1.2 times compared to the same period last year. Belarus' main exports to Azerbaijan included fiberboard, timber, furniture, medicines, transformers, butter, beef, cheese and curd, buttermilk, yogurt, kefir and other goods. Belarus imported Azerbaijan's oil, propylene polymers, tomatoes, canned fruits nuts, and spirits.
Azerbaijan is home to five distribution network entities and 45 dealers representing more than 50 Belarusian enterprises. In 2017, the Trading House of Azerbaijan opened in Minsk, which has been given preferential treatment for the supply of a group of food products to the Belarusian market.
The Ganja Automobile Plant in Azerbaijan has a joint line to assemble a wide range of products of Belarusian brands: various modifications of tractors, agricultural, passenger and automotive equipment.