Qatar eager to explore investment environment in Azerbaijan

By Azernews

By Leman Mammadova

Qatari businessmen are interested in learning about the investment opportunities in Azerbaijan, as another export mission from the South Caucasian country was on a visit to Doha on April 12-16.

As many as 25 companies operating in such areas as food and textile industry, production of construction materials, as well as travel were involved in the mission.

Azerbaijani delegation headed by the Acting President of the Azerbaijan Export and Investment Promotion Foundation (AZPROMO) Yusif Abdullayev, met with officials of the Qatar Chamber. Azerbaijani Ambassador to the country Rashad Ismayilov also attended the meeting.

Mohammed bin Towar al-Kuwari, First Vice Chairman of the Qatar Chamber, said that there are high-level relations between the two countries. “Relations in all areas are rapidly developing. Both countries have taken important steps for the development of relations in all spheres,” he noted.

During the meeting, the Qatari official called on businessmen from both countries to benefit from existing relations between two countries and boost the partnership in business and private sectors.

“Qatar and Azerbaijan have a wide range of business and investment opportunities. So, the companies of both countries are invited to cooperate in the development of the infrastructure and the projects that are being carried out to host the World Cup in 2022,” he stressed.

In his speech, Abdullayev said that the two countries have strong ties and noted that this, in turn, will create new opportunities for businesses and investors to create joint ventures.

He underlined that the Azerbaijani delegation is interested in studying Qatar's investment climate, as well as the incentives and opportunities offered to foreign investors. Abdullayev added that several AZPROMO members have various investments in Qatar, while others export their products to Qatari markets.

Ambassador Ismayilov, in turn, said that Qatar is interested to explore investment climate in Azerbaijan and incentives offered to foreign investors and investment opportunities in all sectors.

Unlike the high level of political cooperation between the two countries, the trade turnover between the two countries is not big although there are more opportunities to expand trade ties.

The trade turnover between Azerbaijan and Qatar reached $3.6 million in 2018, according to the Azerbaijani State Customs Committee. Almost the entire amount of trade turnover accounted for the export of Azerbaijani products to Qatar. Currently, Azerbaijan is mainly exporting food and agricultural products to Qatar.

Both countries have built their economies on energy supplies - the share of oil and gas in exports of Azerbaijan and Qatar is around 90 percent. Nevertheless, in the current realities of low oil prices, diversification of the economy comes to the fore, especially with the attraction of foreign investors and the expansion of trade partnerships. Therefore, now the cooperation between the two oil countries may become more relevant than ever.

In 2016, Joint Economic, Commercial and Technical Commission was established between the governments of Azerbaijan and Qatar. The first meeting of the Commission was held on January 31, 2017 in Azerbaijan.

Agreement on economic, trade and  technical cooperation, memorandum of understanding on tourism cooperation, agreement on promotion and mutual protection of investments, avoidance of double taxation with respect to taxes on income and the prevention of tax evasion agreement, memorandum of understanding for cooperation in the field of agriculture, establishment of Joint Economic, Trade and Technical Commission and other documents on economic cooperation between the governments of the two countries have determined the main directions of bilateral economic relations.

For Qatari citizens, a simplified visa regime is applied in Azerbaijan and the number of visitors to our country is growing. This creates a special opportunity for stronger ties between our peoples. Direct flights have been established, which give impetus to the development of tourism and lead to the formation of even closer relations between the countries.

All this will open up new opportunities for economic relations between Qatar and Azerbaijan, especially in the non-oil field.