08.05.2024 Ankara
At the Türkiye - Azerbaijan Business Forum organized at TOBB, the possible ways to increase trade between the two countries were discussed. Vice President Cevdet Yılmaz, Prime Minister of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ali Esedov and TOBB President M. Rifat Hisarcıklıoğlu gave a message of determination to strengthen bilateral economic relations.
Organized by the Union
of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Türkiye (TOBB) and DEIK, the Türkiye -
Azerbaijan Business Forum was held at TOBB Twin Towers in Ankara. The meeting
hosted by TOBB President Hisarcıklıoğlu was attended by Vice President Cevdet
Yılmaz, Prime Minister of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ali Esedov, DEIK Vice
President Erdal Eren, AZPROMO President Yusif Abdullayev, KOBİA Chairman Orxan
Mammadov and business people.
In his speech at the
Türkiye-Azerbaijan Business Forum, TOBB President M. Rıfat Hisarcıklıoğlu said,
“With the liberation victory of Karabakh, a bleeding wound in the Caucasus has
been closed and a great opportunity has arisen for lasting peace and
tranquility in the region. Together with our Azerbaijani brothers and sisters,
we are ready to do our part for the development of the region and for peace to
take root in the region.”
TOBB President
Hisarcıklıoğlu emphasized that Azerbaijan’s economy is developing rapidly and
offers attractive business and investment opportunities. Emphasizing that Baku
has become one of the most beautiful capitals of the world as a result of the
development concept and policies determined by Azerbaijani President Ilham
Aliyev, Hisarcıklıoğlu said, “Azerbaijan has turned into the region’s trade and
cultural center and tourism destination. As the Turkic world, we are proud of
this striking progress of Azerbaijan. Now it is the turn of Karabakh. With the
liberation victory of Karabakh, a bleeding wound in the Caucasus has been
closed and a great opportunity has arisen for lasting peace and tranquility in
the region. Together with our Azerbaijani brothers and sisters, we are ready to
do our part for the development of the region and for peace to take root in the
region.”
- “The Zengezur Corridor will contribute greatly to
development of trade in our region”
Stating that Karabakh
should become a center of attraction for agriculture, tourism, food, industry
and informatics, Hisarcıklıoğlu said, “I attach great importance to sharing the
projects that will ensure the development of Karabakh with us business people.
In this context, the Zengezur Corridor, which will connect Nakhchivan and Baku,
will contribute greatly to the development of trade in our region. With the
realization of this project, a new middle corridor will be opened from east to
west that everyone can benefit from.”
- “Let’s provide international standard ‘arbitration’ to
attract investors to our countries”
Pointing out that the
Turkic world has an economic size of 1.5 trillion dollars, a foreign trade
volume approaching 1 trillion dollars and a population of 185 million,
Hisarcıklıoğlu said that they should increase economic integration to mobilize
the existing potential power. Stating that increasing economic integration will
be possible with more trade, Hisarcıklıoğlu said, “Our mutual trade volume has
been increasing in recent years. It is moving towards the target of 15 billion
dollars. However, we must act faster. We should expand the scope of our trade.
There is a significant way to go yet in this regard. As you know, the
Preferential Trade Agreement between our countries entered into force on March
1, 2021. At the first stage, we need to expand the scope of the agreement. Then
we should aim for a free trade agreement. Our mutual investments are over 30
billion dollars. For this purpose, we established the Türkiye-Azerbaijan
Chamber of Commerce and Industry. Öztürk Oran and Vugar Abbaso are the
co-chairs of this chamber. Let’s provide an ‘arbitration’ at international
standards to attract investors to our countries.”
- “We should set common standards in customs procedures”
Emphasizing that the
other issue that needs to be improved between the two countries is customs
procedures, Hisarcıklıoğlu said, “Although there are improvements in this
regard, we should set common standards in customs procedures and make the processes
simpler and faster. We should use a very important transit point such as the
Caspian Sea more actively and less costly. On the other hand, we need to start
the construction of the Trans-Caspian Natural Gas Pipeline as soon as
possible.”
Hisarcıklıoğlu said
that the two countries should also remove the transit quotas for each other,
noting that more trade will be achieved with more entrepreneurs and a stronger
private sector.
- Vice President Yılmaz
Vice President Cevdet
Yılmaz said that Türkiye and Azerbaijan are two brotherly countries with a
common history, culture, language and beliefs, and that Azerbaijan’s National
Leader Heydar Aliyev set a direction for the relations between the two
countries that will resonate for centuries by saying “One nation, two states”.
Yılmaz explained that
with the implementation of the protocol, the scope of the TTA will expand and
business people will be able to mutually access the Turkish and Azerbaijani
markets under more favorable conditions, and continued as follows: “We need to
expand preferential trade in the first place, but on the other hand, what we
really need to do is to ensure a Free Trade Agreement in the medium and long
term. Today, we have already reached a consensus on this issue, on the
initiation of negotiations and talks towards this. Within the scope of the 11th
meeting of the Türkiye-Azerbaijan Joint Economic Commission, the platform we
call KEK, we have adopted and mutually signed an action plan of 120 items
today. I would like to point out that there are many items that respond to the
expectations of our business people and that also contain opportunities for
them. I would like to emphasize that many of the expectations of the business
world, which have just been expressed by TOBB, DEIK and Azerbaijan, are also
included in this action plan. We agree to improve customs and logistics
procedures to facilitate trade between our countries. Only trade agreements or
physical roads are not enough. It is also very important for our mutual trade
and economic relations that we improve the gates and simplify the customs
procedures. Following the completion of the necessary work for the
establishment of the Simplified Customs Line, we plan to implement the
Simplified Customs Line as soon as possible.”
Vice President Yılmaz
wished that the Memorandum of Understanding signed today between TOBB and the
Export and Investment Promotion Agency of the Republic of Azerbaijan (AZPROMO)
and the Cooperation Action Plan signed between the Foreign Economic Relations
Board and the Trade Representative Office of the Republic of Azerbaijan would
be beneficial.
- “The scope of the Preferential Trade Agreement should be
expanded”
DEIK Vice President
Erdal Eren said that as “One nation, two states,” Türkiye and Azerbaijan,
economic relations are progressing strongly with the unity brought by
friendship. Stating that the bilateral trade volume has reached approximately
4.5 billion dollars, Eren stated that new steps have been taken for the target
of 15 billion dollars.
Noting that contracting
companies have so far undertaken 527 projects worth 19.3 billion dollars in
Azerbaijan, Eren said that contracting companies are ready to take part in
projects that will contribute to the development of Azerbaijan in the coming
period.
- “We are working to reach the mutual trade volume target
of 15 billion dollars”
Yusif Abdullayev,
President of the Azerbaijan Export and Investment Promotion Agency (AZPROMO),
said that they are doing their best to reach the target of $ 15 billion in
mutual trade volume with Türkiye.
Abdullayev, who stated
that the results of the investment forum they organized in December last year
were very good, noted that Turkish companies want to invest in Azerbaijan and
they are very happy about this.
Orxan Mammadov,
Chairman of the Board of Directors of Azerbaijan Small and Medium Business
Development Agency (KOBİA), reminded that they signed a memorandum of
understanding with KOSGEB in 2018.