More than $60 million in the form of various equipment has already been received by Azerbaijan and the equipment worth $7-8 million will be delivered in the near future, he noted.

“In particular, more than 20 units of various necessary agricultural machinery were transferred to Nakhchivan in late 2017. Meanwhile, Azeravtoyol equipment – bulldozers, excavators, graders and other construction equipment – were supplied for several years and until the end of July 2017. We purchased more than 150 garbage trucks, water trucks, sewer machines, dump trucks, graders thanks to Chinese grants during three years and distributed them to the districts of Azerbaijan. We also ordered a batch of new communal vehicles for fleet renewal next year,” Sharifov said.

The deputy prime minister noted that the Cabinet of Ministers is regularly in touch with the relevant Azerbaijani structures in any of the spheres and solves issues on the delivery of equipment in line with their requests.

“We appreciate the wishes and consider the possibility of acquiring this or that equipment with Chinese grants. The fact is that, according to the conditions, we can only purchase Chinese-made equipment, and there are such types of equipment that are not manufactured in China,” Sharifov said.

He also noted that a new record indicator was observed in trade turnover between China and Azerbaijan that stood at about $1.2 billion.

China’s investments in the Azerbaijani economy amount to hundreds of millions of dollars, and a memorandum of understanding was signed on the SOCAR GPC project in 2017, the cost of which is estimated at $4.5 billion and can be financed by the Chinese side.

According to Azerbaijan’s State Customs Committee, trade turnover with China amounted to about 146 million manats in the first two months of 2018.

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