President Hussain was commenting on the results of his official visit to Azerbaijan.
The president said very useful discussions were held with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, prime minister, different ministers, parliamentary speaker and officials of the country.
“I had very useful discussions, and as the outcome of my visit, there will be growth of relations between our people, our governments, especially in the fields of economy, trade and industry,” he said.
Prospects for economic cooperation
Hussain expressed confidence that the two countries will see growth in their cooperation in the near future.
Furthermore, the president said currently, the volume of trade turnover between Azerbaijan and Pakistan is only $8 million per year and added that the lack of bilateral visits and insufficient level of economic cooperation between the two countries are among the reasons for the low volume of bilateral trade turnover.
President Hussain said the creation of air service between the two countries will promote the expansion of cooperation.
The president said he talked to the Turkish prime minister to ask the Turkish Airlines to start a flight from Ankara or Istanbul to Baku and then to Islamabad or Karachi in Pakistan. “The Turkish prime minister, in turn, was kind enough to immediately have the Turkish Airlines to start the flight.”
This will help improve the relations between the two countries and implement a large number of joint projects, Pakistan’s president said. He expressed confidence that the exchange of delegations will help the mentioned connectivity.
The president noted that a delegation of some 25 business people accompanied him during the visit to Baku and they had discussions with their counterparts in Azerbaijan.
Hussain voiced confidence that this will help increase the volume of trade turnover between Pakistan and Azerbaijan.
Speaking about the possibility of creating favorable conditions for attracting Azerbaijani investors to Pakistan, Hussain said extraordinary conditions have been created in his country for foreign investors.
“Our laws allow any investor to come to Pakistan and to invest 100 percent of equity of his own and repatriate 100 percent of profit into his own country,” said Hussain.
He added that investment opportunities were discussed during the negotiations with the Azerbaijani president, ministers, as well as business people working in various spheres of the country.
The president highlighted the energy sphere and expressed confidence that the Azerbaijani side will make every effort to encourage people who want to invest in different fields, as well as organize visits to Pakistan to study the possibilities and spheres for investing.
Hussain expressed confidence that the talks between the businessmen of the two countries will give very good results and the bilateral trade turnover will start growing soon.
“This was my purpose for the business people to come to Azerbaijan and I am very satisfied with the discussions held here in Baku,” he said.
Furthermore, the Pakistani president noted that the development of oil and gas fields in Azerbaijan made the country economically important and strengthened the country’s position on the international arena.
“Azerbaijan has expertise in oil and gas fields and we should benefit from that,” he added.
Hussain said he got acquainted with the potential of Sumgayit Technologies Park, where state-of-the-art quality high-tech wires, fiber and steel pipes are manufactured.
“We have that technology in Pakistan, but I think that whenever we can help each other, we should, for the benefit of our peoples,” said the president.
“As I`ve met during these days with the leadership of Azerbaijan, we always came to the conclusion that Azerbaijan and Pakistan should cooperate with each other in different fields, and we should benefit of each other`s expertise,” he added.
Hussain said he believes that this will be the reason for the fantastic progress the two countries will have in the future. “We`re going to do wonders in the future.”
Cooperation between Pakistan and Azerbaijan in international organizations
The positions of Pakistan and Azerbaijan are more or less the same on many international issues and there are some many forums, like the UN forum or OIC forum, where there is outstanding cooperation between the two countries, where the two countries have supported the same ideas, same issues, according to the Pakistani president.
“Pakistan and Azerbaijan have same ideas on many international issues,” he said. “I think this fact that Pakistan and Azerbaijan have so many things in common, it will always be seen on international forums, whenever the two countries are present.”
Successful cooperation with Heydar Aliyev Foundation
President Hussain said Pakistan is very grateful to the Heydar Aliyev Foundation, because it, under the leadership of Azerbaijan’s First Lady Mehriban Aliyeva, helped the country during hard times, during the 2005 earthquake and during the 2011 floods.
Some educational institutions have been constructed in Pakistan by the Foundation, according to the president.
The president said all this is thanks to the spirit of Azerbaijan’s First Lady, President of the Heydar Aliyev Foundation Mehriban Aliyeva who always supports Pakistan.
“In my opinion, this trend will continue in the future as well,” Hussain said. “We may have many more future projects in Pakistan with the help of the Heydar Aliyev Foundation.”
Pakistan supports Azerbaijan on Nagorno-Karabakh conflict
Pakistan supports Azerbaijan’s position on the Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, Hussain said.
Hussain stressed that Pakistan is one of the countries which first recognized Azerbaijan as an independent country. “From the very beginning, we`ve had very cordial relations with the country, and people of Azerbaijan.”
“We`ve always supported Azerbaijan`s stance, which we think is the right one,” Hussain said, adding that Pakistan will always support Azerbaijan on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
“We are very pleased and grateful to the Azerbaijani people and the country`s government that they`ve always supported us on issues of Jammu and Kashmir,” the Pakistani president added.
/Trend/
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