Azerbaijan wants to further improve bilateral trade with Pakistan

ISLAMABAD, Apr 01 (DNA): Azerbaijan considers Pakistan and Turkiye as
its special friends and wants to further strengthen bilateral trade and
economic relations with them.

Azerbaijan-Turkiye bilateral trade is approximately USD 6 billion and
Azerbaijan wants a similar trade volume with Pakistan that would be very
beneficial for both countries.

This was said by Khazar Farhadov, Ambassador of Azerbaijan while
exchanging views with the business community during his visit to
Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ICCI) Saturday.

Khazar Farhadov said that direct flights between Azerbaijan and Pakistan
operated by Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) had improved bilateral
trade three times between the two countries in 2022 and Azerbaijan
Airlines will also start direct flights with Lahore, Karachi and
Islamabad very soon and is also considering to start direct flights to
industrial and export centres of Pakistan, which would further
contribute to increase bilateral trade between the two brotherly
countries.

He said that Azerbaijan under the instructions of President of
Azerbaijan H.E. Mr. Ilham Aliyev has given exemption from customs duty
on import of rice from Pakistan, and the Pakistani business community
should take benefit of this facility.

He said that Azerbaijan and Pakistan have formed Working Groups under
Joint Ministerial Commission to increase bilateral cooperation in
various sectors including agriculture, trade, banking, IT, tourism,
transport, energy, health and said that ICCI should cooperate in
identifying companies for these workings groups so that private sectors
could lead the promotion of bilateral cooperation in these sectors
between the two countries.

Ambassador informed that 2023 marks the 100th anniversary of the birth
of Heydar Aliyev, the founder of the independent state of Azerbaijan. He
said that the Embassy of Azerbaijan in collaboration with ICCI is
planning to organize a joint event on the founding role of Heydar Aliyev
in development of Azerbaijan-Pakistan relations.

Speaking at the occasion, Ahsan Zafar Bakhtawari, President, Islamabad
Chamber of Commerce & Industry said that Pak-Azerbaijan bilateral trade
is not up to the real potential of both countries and stressed for
exploring new ways of increasing trade between both countries.

He emphasized creating better awareness in the private sectors of both
countries about each other’s markets to increase business ties. He said
that both countries are doing trade in limited items and there is a need
of finding new product lines and avenues of cooperation for enhancing
trade volume between the two countries.

Faad Waheed, Senior Vice President, ICCI said that both countries should
encourage regular exchange of trade delegations to explore all untapped
areas of mutual cooperation. He assured that ICCI would provide a list
of companies for Working Groups to make them more effective and
result-oriented.

Zafar Bakhtawari, former President ICCI welcomed the establishment of
direct airlinks between Pakistan and Azerbaijan, which are very
important to promote people-to-people and trade relations. He said that
ICCI would cooperate in promoting “Made in Azerbaijan” in Pakistan and
hoped that the Ambassador would also cooperate in promoting “Made in
Pakistan” in Azerbaijan to achieve mutually beneficial outcomes. Raja
Imtiaz, Rizwan Chheena and others were also present at the occasion. DNA

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