Italy, Azerbaijan mull transport cooperation

By Azernews

By Abdul Kerimkhanov

Italy is interested in cooperation with Azerbaijan Railways CJSC, the country’s state-owned rail transport operator.

Augusto Massari, the Italian Ambassador to Azerbaijan, said this during the meeting held in Azerbaijan Railways company on October 2.

During the meeting, the Chairman of Azerbaijan Railways CJSC, Javid Gurbanov spoke in detail about Azerbaijan’s transit, transport and logistics potential, the country’s favorable geographical location, as well as the work done to expand the activities of international transport corridors.

The parties exchanged views on new opportunities created by updating railways and rolling stock, work in the field of transportation of goods along the Europe-Asia route, the advantages of the railway and other issues.

Massari said that he was well aware of the implementation of large-scale transformations in the transport sector of Azerbaijan, addint that his country was interested in cooperating with Azerbaijan Railways CJSC.

Italy is an important economic and trade partner of Azerbaijan. The country accounts for about 20 percent of Azerbaijan’s trade turnover with foreign states. In January-June 2019, Italy topped the list of the main countries on the export. The value of exports to Italy amounted to $2.8 billion in this period.

Bilateral economic relations between the two countries were strengthened following the signing of a Joint Declaration for the establishment of an Italian-Azerbaijani Council for Economic, Industrial and Financial in 2004.

Italy begun to receive a large part of Azerbaijani oil exported through the Baku - Supsa pipeline since 1999 and then through the Baku - Jeyhan. This made Italy the number one partner for Azerbaijan and this position is maintained until today.

As many as 95 Italian companies, which participate in 41 contracting projects under interstate agreements, have been registered in Azerbaijan. In total, the investments of Italian companies in Azerbaijan have amounted to about $530 million, and the volume of Azerbaijani investments in Italy is estimated at $135 million.