Foreign Ministry: Romania eyes restarting economic cooperation with Azerbaijan
The ministry noted that as the world learns how to successfully overcome the COVID-19 crisis, the countries also need to be more active
Taking into consideration that the global economy has started to recover after more than one year of difficulties caused by the pandemic, Azerbaijan and Romania have good prospects for a reboot of the bilateral economic cooperation, starting with key areas such as energy, connectivity, and trade, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Romania told Qazet.az.
Also, there are new promising areas that could be further explored: capacity building and transfer of best practices (e.g. energy regulatory agencies, on diaspora policies, food safety, education, start-ups etc.); environment (e.g. cleaning of former industrial sites); logistics; new trade opportunities (pharma) etc., said the ministry.
“Fortunately, lately we have seen good news with regard to the fight against the spread of the pandemic, with increasingly effective protective measures and particularly the rollout of vaccination in many countries, including in Romania and Azerbaijan,” the ministry added.
The ministry noted that as the world learns how to successfully overcome the COVID-19 crisis, the countries also need to be more active and creative in helping the Romanian and Azerbaijani companies to discover and take advantage of the business opportunities on the two markets.
“For example, Romania has now a strong, diverse manufacturing and industrial base, with a wide range of specialized, competitive products and services which might answer some of Azerbaijan’s needs,” noted the Romanian ministry, adding that at the same time, Azerbaijan’s economy is diversifying and the non-oil exports are expected to increase on the longer run, which may call for the identification of new markets, such as Romania.
“There is untapped potential in our trade relations, and we need long-term vision and planning in order to diversify them in a sustainable manner. Of course, in this process, we need to fully exploit the instruments provided by the Joint Intergovernmental Commission, which remains the single most important forum to take stock of the ongoing projects and set forth the priorities for the future,” added the MFA.
According to Romanian statistics, in 2020, bilateral goods trade was more than $179 million. The exports of Romania to the Republic of Azerbaijan amounted to $47.761 million, while the imports of Romania from the Republic of Azerbaijan amounted to $131.584 million.