Iran and Azerbaijan seek to expand commercial relations. The presidents of the two countries have met seven times in the past three year.
In the economic conference between Iran and Azerbaijan, the Minister of Economic Development of Azerbaijan Republic, Shahin Mustafayev said: “Trade among the two countries has grown more than 70% compared to previous years. Over 500 Iranian companies have been registered in Azerbaijan, most of which are active in the oil sector.”
Trade between Iran and Azerbaijan is valued at $500m. Both countries have enacted policies to reduce reliance on oil income, thus it is necessary to increase investment in other sectors. The total investment of Iranian companies in Azerbaijan in non-oil sectors is only 150 million dollars.
“To this end, Iran Khodro Co. has opened production facilities in Neftchala which will manufacture 10 thousand automobiles in 2017. Furthermore, to ease the transportation of trucks across the border, the tariff has been reduced from 160 to 100 dollars per truck”, explained Mustafayev.
Iran and Azerbaijan have also made plans for joint investments in transportation infrastructure. With the completion on the Ghazvin to Rasht railway and continuing it until Astara, the two countries can be directly joined via railway.
As for transportation by air, direct flights between Tehran and Baku, Mashhad and Baku as well as Tabriz and Baku are popular with Azeri passengers and can lead to an increase in the number of flights between the two countries.
