The general direction of partner relations between Russia and Azerbaijan is the search of common approaches to modernizing national economies and joint diversification of production, State Duma Deputy, head of the interparliamentary group of friendship Russia-Azerbaijan, Dmitriy Savelyev told Kapital strany internet edition while assessing the implementation of 'roadmaps', initiated last year by Presidents Vladimir Putin and Ilham Aliyev. Savelyev also named the perspective directions of Russian-Azerbaijani cooperation.
"Only when we create 'new economy' with production much more profitable that the crude export, will it be possible to say that the Russian and Azerbaijani state budgets are no longer dependent on prices on the world market of energy sources," he said.
According to the Russian MP, even in oil and gas sector, in which our countries are traditionally strong, crude processing leads to significant added value. He listed the launch of three plants - SOCAR Polymer, SOCAR Karbamid and Diamed Co. - this year as an example of successful cooperation.
"Gazprom invested nearly $500,000,000 in the first project alone. Another example of successful Russian-Azerbaijani partnership is the pharmaceutical complex 'Hayat Farm' in which Russia's R-Farm and Azerbaijani Vita-A invested more than EUR 70,000,000," Savelyev said.
And the successes in the energy and transport sectors, he said, have long gone beyond bilateral cooperation. The deputy recalled the signing of an agreement to unite the energy systems of Russia, Azerbaijan and Iran. “This will open up new opportunities for creating industrial production clusters along the North-South transport corridor and, as a result, will give yet another impetus to the development of economic cooperation,” said Dmitry Savelyev.
He also believes that the transport infrastructure of Azerbaijan provides enormous transit opportunities to all interested parties, primarily Russia, which will be able to increase the volume of cargo transportation by rail to 500,000 tons in the next two years thanks to the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars route. Thus, the Russian economy will be able to take the next successful steps towards diversifying the routes for delivering goods to Europe.
Meanwhile, the State Duma deputy continued that the turnover between Russia and Azerbaijan themselves is growing annually. “Our country mainly supplies mechanical engineering products to Azerbaijan, and Azerbaijani agricultural products are still highly rated on our grocery market,” says Dmitry Savelyev. "This year Azerbaijanis place particular emphasis on the supply of their famous wines: it is planned to open two wine houses. Interestingly, Azerbaijan is ready to purchase Russian milk: a hotter climate than ours hinders milk production, so it is more profitable for the republic to import dairy products than to produce them on its own. This potentially opens up a wide field of activity for regional Russian manufacturers.”
According to him, interregional Russian-Azerbaijani cooperation remains the main trend in the strategic partnership of our countries. Dmitry Savelyev stresses that the Azerbaijani business missions actively contribute to the annual growth of new Russian exporters to Azerbaijan: “It is noteworthy that interregional cooperation is not limited to one or two directions, but covers a wide range of possible points of contact, and this is yet another proof that our countries are connected by an increasing number of threads of mutual cooperation over time, creating an innovative 'new economy'," the MP said.