Speech by Ilham Aliyev at the Azerbaijan-Pakistan business forum

- Dear Mr. Prime Minister, my dear brother,

Ladies and gentlemen,

Dear brother, once again, welcome to Azerbaijan. I'm very glad that, within the framework of the state visit of Mr. Prime Minister, a business forum of prominent representatives of the business circles of both countries is being organized in Baku. I think it fully reflects our bilateral agenda and what we discussed with Mr. Prime Minister during our meetings today. We are very satisfied with the way bilateral political relations develop. They are actually excellent. But at the same time, we regret that trade turnover does not match the political standards and the level of political interaction. I think that the messages, which have already been given by the two leaders, and also discussions at the forum, will create a much better framework for active business contacts, mutual investments, and, of course, an increase in mutual trade. We are interested in that, and we consider that the brotherly relations between our countries should be a good platform for business circles to build their ties. One of the issues which sometimes prevents more active business-to-business contacts is the lack of information about our plans, our economic agenda, and our infrastructure projects. So, in order to fill this gap, I think these kinds of gatherings are very important. Because, during the business forum, of course, there is an exchange of information, presentations, business opportunities, legal formats of taxes, customs duties, etc.; all of which are important for businessmen to know prior to entering the market. I am sure that enough information was given about Azerbaijan’s business climate and the investments attracted by our government—both foreign and domestic— which created special opportunities in order to address issues of employment and provide necessary infrastructure for our people. Excellent political relations, of course, should definitely be reflected in the level of mutual investments.

During my state visit to Pakistan last summer, the Azerbaijani side officially announced that we are planning to invest 2 billion US dollars in Pakistan's economy. Our teams have been working on that, especially after the visit of my dear brother, the Prime Minister, last November to attend COP29. After that, we got concrete proposals, concrete projects. They are in the phase of evaluation. After our meeting this morning, I already instructed the corresponding members of our economic team to pay special attention to this. Soon, our delegation will visit Pakistan. We have agreed to determine the timeframe for our teams to come to an agreement within one month. I hope that after the Novruz holiday, which will be at the end of March, we will already have something substantial to start with.

We are interested in energy projects, in projects related to infrastructure. By the way, today our energy companies signed a number of documents, which will definitely transform into practical elements of our cooperation. Cooperation in the energy field, which today includes LNG, I'm sure will grow and will cover many other areas.

At the same time, today we have discussed opportunities in the transportation sector. Taking into account that Azerbaijan is actively promoting two important international projects across its territory - two corridors North-South and East-West. Azerbaijan is an active member on both tracks. The creation of connectivity points between us will definitely create additional opportunities. Necessary instructions have been given to members of our team responsible for the transportation sector to look at the broader picture of regional cooperation and how to establish contacts between our ports, our railroad officials, and, in general, between our transportation companies.

We also discussed today the excellent cooperation in the defense industry area. We suggested that we can start working on joint manufacturing of defense equipment. There is significant potential for that. At the same time, we know that Pakistan has a very developed pharmaceutical industry. According to the information I was given, more than 90 items of the Pakistani pharmaceutical industry have been registered in Azerbaijan. Our suggestion is also to review the opportunities for joint manufacturing of pharmaceutical products in Azerbaijan.

In many other areas, we really see great potential. The basis for that is the brotherly relationship between our countries and the mutual political will to bring economic and business contacts to the level of political contacts.

Once again, my dear brother, thank you for paying a visit to Azerbaijan. Thank you for being accompanied by a big group of prominent businessmen from Pakistan. I'm sure you all feel at home, the same way we feel when we visit your beautiful country. We wish you success, and also we will control with my brother all our instructions. By April, we will be expecting practical results and documents ready for signature.