First session of Azerbaijani – Czech intergovernmental commission on economic, cultural, scientific and technical cooperation took place in Prague

Members of Azerbaijani delegation headed by Deputy minister of Economic Development Mr. Niyazi Safrov were Ambassador Tahir Taghizade, Deputy minister of Agriculture Mr. Aslan Aslanov, Head of the State Maritime Administration Mr. Gudrat Gurbanov, Deputy head of the State Committee on Urban Development and Architecture Mr. Dovlatkhan Dovlatkhanov, representatives of Ministry of Economic Development, Ministry of Communications and Information Technologies, Ministry of Culture and Tourism, Ministry of Transport, Ministry of Health, National Bank and “AzPromo” Agency.

Emphasizing that Azerbaijan is the second biggest oil supplier to the Czech Republic, Head of the CIS countries division of European countries department of the Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Czech Republic Mr. Y. Mashata on his opening speech stressed the dynamic progress of trade between two countries, and attractiveness of Azerbaijan for Czech companies. Y. Mashata said that the commission is purposed to develop economic relations suitable for potential of two countries.

After discussions within the working groups, bilateral meeting of heads of delegations Mr. Milan Hovorka, Deputy minister of Industry and Trade of the Czech Republic and Mr. Niyazi Safarov, Deputy minister of the Economic Development of the Republic of Azerbaijan took place. Session continued with the presentation of Mr. Rufat Mammadov on investment possibilities to Azerbaijan.

During his final speech M. Hovorka highlighted Azerbaijan's importance in Europe's energy security and added that the cooperation must not be limited within this area.

N. Safarov gave the broad information about gained achievements on improvement of non-oil sector and poverty reduction and stated that bilateral economic relations between two countries raised to another level after President Vaclav Klaus's visit to Azerbaijan. Deputy minister mentioned grandness of the first session for defining future priorities of cooperation.

In his speech Ambassador Tahir Taghizade said that after long-lasting preparations the first session of commission is important from the following points:

1)An opportunity to implement instructions of President Ilham Aliyev while establishing the embassy on development of economic relations and diversification of cooperation areas;
2)Establishing basis for direct contacts between business persons of two countries
3)Increasing contacts between representatives of two countries.

Ambassador of the Czech Republic to the Republic of Azerbaijan Mr. Radek Matula characterized political relations between countries as “without problems” and expressed his belief that the session will be a new impulse for the future development of economic relations.