Sevinj Hasanova and Rufat Mammadov: Baku is actively investing in North Caucasus

Now Azerbaijan is actively developing cooperation with all entities of the Russian North Caucasus, Deputy Minister of Economy of Azerbaijan Sevinj Hasanova and the head of the Azerbaijan Fund for Export and Investment Promotion AZPROMO Rufat Mammadov said in an interview with a correspondent of Vestnik Kavkaza during a meeting with Russian journalists in the framework of the official events with representatives of the Russian mass media in Azerbaijan on the threshold  of the parliamentary elections on November 1st. 

Rufat Mammadov recalled that Azerbaijani business has been in the North Caucasus for a long period of time. "Azerbaijani companies carry out very active work in this region of Russia, Dagestan, North Ossetia and Ingushetia. The latest 40 business activities were conducted by AZPROMO, the greater part of them was organized exactly in those regions of Russia. Representatives of the North Caucasus Federal District are among those businessmen who visit Azerbaijan most frequently. Azerbaijani companies both invest and work on specific projects in Dagestan and other republics of the Russian Caucasus,’’ he said. 

Sevinj Hasanova noted above all that Russian business is widely represented in Azerbaijan. At the same time, the republic itself is actively investing in the Russian economy. "This is both private, and at the state level. Our State Oil Fund invests in a wide spectrum of securities of different countries and companies, including in Russia, and in particular, in ‘Gazprom’. Among the Caucasian republics we have the most developed contacts with our neighbor Dagestan. We are always interested in improving and extending relations with it. In particular we are negotiating about mutual investments," she specified. 

‘’Today we have very intense trade between our northern regions and Dagestan. Our northern transit is carried out through the republics of the Russian Caucasus. It is very important for us to have good relations with Dagestan due to the fact that our exports to Russia and Russian imports are delivered through the border of this region. The creation of the so-called ‘green line’ at customs for agricultural products and particularly for perishable products has a special interest for us. This issue was discussed at a meeting, the intergovernmental commission and with the leadership of Dagestan, as the implementation of this initiative is extremely important for us,’’ the Deputy Minister of Economy of Azerbaijan said.

According to her estimation, the cooperation with Dagestan may develop into similar contacts with Tatarstan. "The last inter-regional forum, which was held in Tatarstan, helped us to receive information about priorities of investments related to Dagestan. The work can be based similarly to the Tatarstan model: I remind you that we are working now with the republic in agriculture in the framework of the Russian import substitution, and we are building a joint plant in Tatarstan. The same idea is possible to be implemented in Dagestan,’’ Sevinj Casanova concluded.