On 9 December, the signing ceremony of the first ever helicopter maintenance and repair plant in the region was held on the territory of the Zabrat airport in Baku, reported Vestnikkavkaza. The agreement was signed by the President of Azerbaijan Airlines (AZAL) Jahangir Asgarov and Director General of the Russian Helicopters company Andrey Boginsky.
The new plant will be built as part of the implementation of joint projects in accordance with the Azerbaijan-Russia interstate governmental commission[‘s decisions] in the field of economic cooperation within bilateral partnership for the development of civil aviation. The project will be implemented jointly with the Russian Helicopters joint-stock company.
On the same day the Russian Minister of Economy Maxim Oreshkin met with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev to reflect on the economic relations between the two countries and to discuss the drafting and implementation of the economic roadmaps between the two countries.
“The outgoing year was very successful for the development of Azerbaijani-Russian bilateral relations in all areas. Multibillion investments from Russia to Azerbaijan, from Azerbaijan to Russia is an indicator, first of all, of our trust in each other, as well as a favourable investment environment, which is improving both in Russia and in Azerbaijan. We see this in the ratings of the World Bank ‘Doing Business’ and the Davos Competitiveness Forum,“ said Aliyev.
Oreshkin, in turn, emphasized a 30 percent increase in Russian trade with Azerbaijan against the backdrop of negative dynamics in trade and economic relations with the EAEU.
A day later, Oreshkin and Azerbaijan's Deputy Prime Minister Shahin Mustafayev signed the roadmaps for agricultural and tourism cooperation for 2020-2022.
Mustafayev noted that 950 companies with Russian capital operate in Azerbaijan. “Russian investments in the Azerbaijani economy reached $4.9 billion, whereas Azerbaijan invested $ 1.2 billion in the Russian economy,” he said.
Oreskhin emphasized that the agricultural products exported from Azerbaijan to Russia are of high quality. He also noted that it is important to develop cooperation in the transport and logistics sphere.
Russia is the main buyer of agricultural products in Azerbaijan. In 2018, Azerbaijan exported more than 560,000 tons of agricultural products to Russia. Russian companies in turn export agricultural machinery to Azerbaijan. In recent years, Russia exported about 900 units of agricultural machinery for various purposes and more than 650,000 tons of mineral fertilizers to Azerbaijan.
In relation to tourism, Russian visitors made up the bulk of Azerbaijan’s tourism in 2018. As many as 2,849,600 tourists from 196 countries visited Azerbaijan during 2018 and Russians made up the largest part of the tourists, at 30.9 percent (about 900,000).
