Fifth meeting of Azerbaijan-Moldova intergovernmental commission took place

The fifth session of the joint intergovernmental commission on economic cooperation between Azerbaijan and Moldova was held in Chisinau, Azernews reports, citing the Azerbaijani Agriculture Ministry.

According to the information, before the meeting, a bilateral meeting was held between the delegation headed by the co-chairman of the commission from Azerbaijan, Minister Majnun Mammadov, and the delegation headed by the co-chairman of the commission from Moldova, Minister of Regional Development and Infrastructure of this country Andrei Spinu.

The sides exchanged views on bilateral cooperation, energy, transport, agriculture, transfer of technologies, increase of trade turnover, promotion of mutual investments, use of advantages created by the Middle Corridor in exporting products to third countries.

Then the meeting began.

Welcoming the guests, Spinu said that, after the last meeting held in Baku, the two countries took concrete steps to assess economic, as well as energy, transport, logistic opportunities, and other cooperation fields.

Spinu said that Moldova is interested in cooperating with Azerbaijan in such fields as technology transfer, joint scientific research, training of specialists, and export of products, and today's meeting may ensure the emergence of new economic cooperation directions of mutual interest between the two countries. Spinu stressed that there is a great potential and necessity to develop bilateral cooperation relations in such fields as agriculture, education, social protection, and digitalization of services.

Majnun Mammadov said that there is a great potential for further expansion of economic cooperation between the two countries, and the discussions to be held in Chisinau will stimulate the further development of this cooperation. Saying that Azerbaijan and Moldova are strategic partners, the co-chairman stressed that this partnership is developing in the spirit of mutual respect and friendship.

Referring to the need to develop economic relations along with political ones, Mammadov stressed the importance of taking steps aimed at further diversifying the trade relations and increasing the trade turnover, taking into account the economic potential. According to him, mutual participation in business forums and international exhibitions can further strengthen cooperation between business circles of the two countries.

Noting that Azerbaijan has become one of the reliable transport and logistics centers in the Eurasian region, Mammadov urged Moldova to evaluate these opportunities in exporting products.

Later, the participants in the meeting discussed the state of implementation of the decisions taken at the 4th meeting of the commission held on 10 October last year, noting that important works have been done in this direction.

At the meeting, a memorandum of cooperation was signed between the Export and Investment Promotion Agency of Azerbaijan and the Investment Agency of Moldova. The document envisages the expansion of cooperation in the direction of attracting foreign investments in non-oil sectors and stimulating the export of non-oil products.

Later, a protocol on the results of the 5th meeting of the Joint Intergovernmental Commission on economic cooperation between Azerbaijan and Moldova was approved. The document envisages further development of bilateral cooperation between the two countries in the spheres of support for small and medium-sized enterprises, agriculture, food security, energy, transport, scientific, technical and humanitarian, social, healthcare, ecology, and tourism.

The final protocol also reflected the intention to further improve the legal and regulatory framework of bilateral relations between the two countries.

The sides agreed to hold the sixth meeting of the joint intergovernmental commission on Azerbaijani-Moldovan economic cooperation next year in Baku.