Azerbaijan to hold economic forum in Ukraine

By Azernews

By Leman Mammadova

Ukraine is Azerbaijan’s second largest trade partner among post-Soviet countries. Azerbaijan is also considered one of the main trade partners of Ukraine.

Azerbaijan will hold an economic forum in Ukraine to discuss cooperation between the two countries.

This was stated by Azerbaijani Ambassador to Ukraine Azer Khudiyev during a meeting with Mayor of Kharkiv city Hennadiy Kerne.

The meeting discussed cooperation in the field of tourism and the participation of Azerbaijani business in the Ukrainian economy.

“Kharkiv and Ukraine have become home to 500,000 Azerbaijanis over the past decades, and cooperation has not been interrupted for all these years. Now, in addition to supporting the community, we find common interests in the tourism sector. A very active educational exchange is underway, and, surely, the interest of our business in Ukraine comes first,” said Khudiyev.

“Azerbaijani construction and other companies have great successful experience in implementing infrastructure projects around the world. Further, we plan to organize an economic forum in Ukraine in order to find real common ground and sign mutually beneficial contracts,” he added.

Khudiyev noted that the cultural and information center of Azerbaijan in Kharkiv will open on November 8. He mentioned that Kharkiv's trade turnover with Azerbaijan amounted to almost $16 million in 2018, while the export of Ukrainian goods is growing.

Kernes, in turn, stressed the interest of Kharkiv, particularly in investments, the exchange of inter-municipal experience in the field of urban infrastructure management and in its modernization.

It should be noted that bilateral trade between the two countries reached $850 million in 2018. Main goods imported from Ukraine are metallurgy products, machine building products, agro-industrial products and chemical industry products. Meanwhile, the main goods exported from Azerbaijan to Ukraine are products of fuel energy industry, chemical industry products, and agro-industrial products. Azerbaijan is currently the main supplier of oil to Ukraine.

Recently, Azerbaijan and Ukraine have been engaged in active development of economic cooperation. In June 2018, the first Trading House of Azerbaijan was opened in Kiev, and similar houses are planned to open in other cities of the country. Ukraine plans to open an honorary consulate in Azerbaijan by the end of 2019.