St. Petersburgers Look To Expand Economic Cooperation With Azerbaijan

Russia-Azerbaijan economic cooperation was in the spotlight last week as the chairman of the Committee for Entrepreneurship and Consumer Market Development of St. Petersburg and Russia businessmen met with some of their Azerbaijani counterparts in Baku.

“We expect the Azerbaijan-Russia investment climate to see positive changes, which is possible as we have very close contacts thanks to our joint Soviet past,” Elgiz Kachaev, the chairman of the Russian committee, told Caspian News. “... our governments understand one another, we have mutual trust and we have a concrete message from our presidents.”

The event was held at the Baku Business Center and supported by the Azerbaijan-Russian Business Council, the Ministry of Economy of the Republic of Azerbaijan and the Azerbaijan Export and Investment Promotion Foundation (AZPROMO).

“Mutual investment is an important area of cooperation between Russia and Azerbaijan,” Kachaev said as he addressed the gathering. “Last year, trade turnover increased by ten percent and amounted to over $2 billion. Over [the first] ten months of 2017, this number increased by 6.5 percent compared to the corresponding period of the past year, and amounted to $1.9 billion.”

Kachaev noted that today there are about 700 companies with Russian capital in Azerbaijan, and over the last ten years more than $3.7 billion was invested in Azerbaijan’s economy by Russians. Investments by Azerbaijanis in Russia amounted to more than $1 billion.

Russia, is interested in expanding of business ties with Azerbaijan in various sectors, including agriculture, petrochemicals, manufacturing, metals processing and tourism.

“St. Petersburg and Azerbaijan have a mutual and common interest, since St. Petersburg is a historical and cultural capital of Russia, and the culture of Azerbaijan is no less interesting,” Kachaev said at the gathering.

“I know that Baku has achieved great results in the realm of tourism. I frequently hear when someone says that he or she wants to visit Azerbaijan. And I think that rumors are the best form of advertising.”

Kachaev noted St. Petersburg’s win at the 2017 World Travel Awards’ Europe Gala Ceremony on September 30, where it was awarded the title of “Europe’s Leading City Destination” for the third time.

For its part, Azerbaijan has proven itself as growing global tourist destination that is able to successfully accommodate between three and 3.5 million tourists per year, with more than 560 hotels and over 730 tourism companies operating in the country.

At an event dedicated to World Tourism Day on September 27, Azerbaijan’s Culture and Tourism Minister Abulfas Garayev noted that the first eight months of this year saw over 1.8 million tourists come to Azerbaijan, spending about 1.3 billion manats ($765 million) in the country.

Azerbaijan also successfully popularizes its “Made in Azerbaijan” brand throughout the world, especially in Russia. The Azerbaijani export mission, supported by the Ministry of Economy and AZPROMO, participated at the St. Petersburg food exhibition, called Peterfood, which took place in St. Petersburg on November 15-17. As many as 18 Azerbaijani entrepreneurs participated in the export mission. The number of production supplies from Azerbaijan to Russia increased five times this year, meaning more Petersburgers eat natural Azerbaijani products.

The Russian Export Center, a joint-stock company, will be opening an office in Azerbaijan in December, to provide financial and non-financial support for Russia exporters to external markets. According to Elmira Kachayeva, the head of the Export Center, Center for Import Substitution and Localization of St. Petersburg, it will give Russian companies an additional impetus to strengthen their ties with Azerbaijani markets.

“At the moment, as many as 20 projects are under consideration, which have a total amount of financial support of $200 million. Two projects are related to financial services and 18 are non-financial,” she said.