Bulgaria, Azerbaijan plan to hold business forum

The 6th meeting of the Azerbaijani-Bulgarian joint commission on trade, economic, scientific, and technical cooperation, scheduled for Baku this year, and a business forum within the framework of this meeting, is among the topical issues.

Azerbaijani Ambassador to Bulgaria Huseyn Huseynov made the remarks in an interview with Trend.

He noted that Azerbaijani-Bulgarian cooperation is traditionally based on friendly relations.

"This year, the two countries celebrate the 30th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations. The Joint Declaration on Strategic Partnership, signed in Sofia on March 4, 2015, during Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev's official visit to Bulgaria, forms the basis of relations and opens up new opportunities for a bilateral and multilateral cooperation, as well as bilateral economic ties," Huseynov said.

The ambassador added that the COVID-19 pandemic had a negative impact on bilateral trade in 2020, but in 2021 the trade turnover had a positive trend and at the end of the year amounted to $ 72.65 million. He added that in the first four months of 2022, this figure amounted to $ 50.3 million and will increase by the end of the year.

"Crude oil, petroleum products and natural gas make up a significant part of exports from Azerbaijan to Bulgaria. The two countries signed a 25-year contract in 2013 for the supply of 1 billion cubic meters of gas per year from Azerbaijan to Bulgaria, the transportation of natural gas began on December 31, 2020. We expect exports from Azerbaijan to Bulgaria to grow significantly after the commissioning of the Greece-Bulgaria interconnector (IGB) in the coming months. Although the Azerbaijani-Bulgarian economic ties are dominated by the energy sector, the two countries are interested in developing relations in non-oil sectors, including transport, industry, trade, agriculture, information technology and tourism. In this regard, we are working to diversify trade and increase mutual investment opportunities," Huseynov explained.