Azerbaijan, Russia discuss international trade, cargo issues
By Leman Mammadova
Azerbaijan and Russia discussed transport and logistics issues to further expand trade and cargo volumes.
A meeting of the Logistics Commission of the Azerbaijani-Russian Business Council was held, the Ministry of Economy told Report.
The event was attended by more than 20 entrepreneurs and businessmen who are members of the council.
Chairman of the Commission Natig Heydarov welcomed the participants in the introductory speech and briefed on the recent projects in the field of logistics, including the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars, Astara terminal and other projects.
Then representatives of Formag Baku, Gilan Holding, GokNur, STP, ASPI Agro, Koroglu and other companies exchanged views on the issues they are interested in.
At the meeting, the sides discussed tariffs for air transportation, transport tax, optimization of transportation and storage costs and other topics.
Participants also discussed the successful experience of other countries in the field of logistics.
The Azerbaijan-Russia Business Council was established in 2016.The main goal of the Council is further deepening of ties in the fields of economy and mutual investment between Azerbaijan and Russia, cooperation between businessmen. To this end, the Azerbaijan-Russia Business Council closely cooperates with a similar organization in Russia - the Russian-Azerbaijani Business Council, and systematically holds joint meetings of business councils with the participation of businessmen.
The improvement of transport, logistics issues with Azerbaijan as well as the transport infrastructures implemented by Azerbaijan is of great importance for Russia as all this serves not only to the bilateral trade, but also to the realization of International North-South Transport Corridor (INSTC) connecting Northern Europe with South-East Asia.
INSTC is designed for the transportation of goods from India and the Gulf countries to Russia, Western Europe, the Baltic and Scandinavian countries.
The North-South transport corridor was established in 2000 within the Intergovernmental Agreement between Russia, Iran and India. In total, 13 countries have ratified the Agreement. Azerbaijan joined this Agreement in 2005. The purpose of the corridor is to reduce the delivery time to three weeks from India to Russia, as well as to North and Western Europe as the current route takes more than six weeks (through the Persian Gulf, the Suez Canal, the Mediterranean Sea to Helsinki).
Azerbaijan, Iran and Russia signed an agreement in 2005 on the construction of 375 km long Astara-Resht-Qazvin railway project envisages the construction of a new railway line in Iran, which will connect Astara, Azerbaijan to the Iranian cities of Astara, Rasht and Qazvin as well as the reconstruction of an existing railway in Azerbaijan.
The railway between Astara regions of Azerbaijan and Iran has been already completed. Qazvin-Rasht part of railway has been launched in November. The construction of the Rasht-Astara railway will be completed in two years.
The expected volume of cargo on the corridor passing through the territory of Azerbaijan is 3 million tons at the first, 5-8 million tons at the second and 15 million tons at the third stage.
In 2017, Azerbaijan, Iran and Russia lowered the tariffs by 50 percent for the activation of cargo transportation via the North-South international transport corridor. In the same year, the increase in cargo transportation through the territory of Azerbaijan between Russia and Iran was 68 percent.
Azerbaijan is one of the main economic partners of Russia among the CIS countries and Russia remains one of Azerbaijan’s main foreign trade partners. Interregional cooperation plays an important role in the development of Russian-Azerbaijani trade and economic relations and the increase in trade turnover. Russia ranks first in terms of export of non-oil products from Azerbaijan.
So far, Azerbaijan invested more than $1 billion in the Russian economy, and Russia invested more than $4.2 billion in Azerbaijan’s economy. About 760 companies with Russian capital operate in Azerbaijan.
Russia is a strategic partner of Azerbaijan. The legal framework between the countries includes over 180 documents, including about 50 in the economic sphere.
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Leman Mammadova is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @leman_888
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