Commerce minister concerned over declining trade volume with Azerbaijan

ISLAMABAD - Minister for Commerce Muhammad Pervaiz Malik on Thursday expressed his concerns over declining volume of bilateral trade with Azerbaijan saying the bilateral trade was not a true reflection of the great potential of trade between the two countries which had declined from the $58.26 million in 2015-16 to $26.88 million in 2016-17.

He was talking to the ambassador of Azerbaijan in Pakistan, Ali Alizada in Islamabad.

He said in order to enhance and diversify trade with Azerbaijan, Ministry of Commerce had prepared a draft memorandum of understanding (MoU) on five-year trade cooperation plan that had been shared with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for onward transmission to the relevant authorities of Azerbaijan for their comments, however response from Azerbaijan side is awaited.

The minister stressed the need to take concerted efforts from both sides to increase the trade volume and economic cooperation.

“The decrease in Pakistan’s exports to Azerbaijan in 2016-17 is mainly due to decline in export of rice to Azerbaijan from $45 million to $21.1 million”, he added.

Ambassador of Azerbaijan in Pakistan, Ali Alizada said that Pakistan is a lucrative market for investors from Azerbaijan and they are keenly interested in investment.

He also agreed with the minister’s proposal for increased interaction and institutional arrangements to discuss trade-related issues and identify areas of interest to boost bilateral trade and cooperation.