The expansion of trade and economic relations between Azerbaijan and Pakistan is a priority for both countries, although there were some obstacles in the way of this, the two states are overcoming them.
As one of the obstacles the ambassador noted the transportation problems. In order to overcome this National Logistics Cell (NLC) the biggest transport company of Pakistan made a pilot project a few weeks ago, under the TIR Convention, which assured that the supplied goods were not opened in-between the delivery, but only at the place of the destination: ”Within this pilot project for the first time the goods were packed in Pakistan and opened only in Azerbaijan.”
As he said the launch of this pilot project shows a positive prospect for further cooperation in this field.
He also expressed hope that some Azerbaijani transport companies could also operate in the same way: “Pakistan is a big market and we would like to see more Azerbaijani products entering this market. This will bring the people of the two countries closer”.
Another transportation difficulty is the absence of direct flights: “Pakistan International Airlines are very interested not only in opening the direct flights with Azerbaijan, but also their office here. The only obstacle in this is the complete resumption of the visa process by Azerbaijan after COVID-19. We see that thousands of Pakistanis are willing to visit Azerbaijan,” said the ambassador.
For the second obstacle, the ambassador noted that the financial institutions of both countries (commercial banks) were not fully integrated.
“We have been working with Central Bank of Azerbaijan and State Bank of Pakistan to prepare the guidelines for the commercial banks- how they can facilitate the business transactions. There’s a lot of progress in this,” he noted.
As for the last issue the tariff regime, which was high was noted. He noted that the two countries thanks to the good relations agreed to enter a Preferential trade arrangement (PTAs). The draft of this has been exchanged and only technical issues are left and the signing is expected for the next year.
He noted that Pakistan and Azerbaijan have historically had very good relations in various fields, but the countries want to further develop business operations.
“After Azerbaijan's glorious victory in the second Karabakh war in 2020, we believe that now is the time to expand relations between the two countries in other areas, in particular in economic, trade, investment and others. Our relations in the field of defense are very strong, and we want to take them to a higher level” the ambassador added.
As he said the sides also want to focus on cultural cooperation between the countries. For this Pakistan opened a cultural center in Azerbaijan University of Languages and Azerbaijani cultural center will soon be opened in one of the biggest Pakistani universities. These centers will contribute to the promotion of languages and cultures of each other’s countries.
“Next year Azerbaijan and Pakistan will be completing 30 years of the establishment of the diplomatic relations. For this, we’re planning a lot of activities in different spheres,” concluded the ambassador.