Bulgaria and Azerbaijan will look for new opportunities to promote bilateral economic relations. The two countries have great unrealised potential in trade development. This became clear during a meeting between the Minister of Economy and Industry Dr. Petko Nikolov and the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Azerbaijan to our country H.E. Hussein Husseinov. There was a request from both sides to intensify cooperation in sectors such as engineering, information and communication technologies (ICT), agriculture, transport, etc. The strategic energy partnership between the two countries was also highlighted during the meeting.
The opportunities for the development of trade and economic relations and the prospects for joint investments were discussed. They discussed the opportunities for increasing the Azeri investments in Bulgaria and the entry of more Bulgarian products in the Azerbaijani market as a top priority. In this regard, Minister Nikolov and Ambassador Khuseynov agreed to work on the implementation of joint business forums to achieve concrete partnerships between the businesses of the two countries. The two stressed the importance of the meeting held in early July 2024 in Sofia. Baku Sixth meeting of the Bulgarian-Azerbaijani intergovernmental commission for economic cooperation as an important instrument for intensifying ties between the two countries.
During the meeting the bilateral trade between Bulgaria and Azerbaijan was noted and readiness was expressed to promote the positive trend. For the first five months of this year Bulgarian exports to Azerbaijan amounted to USD 21.3 million, which is an increase of 74.9%. During the same period, bilateral trade amounted to 129.2 million USD.
“It is important for us to promote the export of Bulgarian goods to the Azerbaijani market in areas such as mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, electronics, equipment for the food industry, food products and others,” said Minister Petko Nikolov.
For his part, Ambassador Khuseynov pointed out that Azerbaijani companies are interested in investing in our country in agriculture, transport, tourism, etc.