Within the visit of the Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev to Latvia, it is expected to hold the first meeting of the Azerbaijani-Latvian Intergovernmental Commission for Economic Co-operation, a government source told Trend.
In this regard, the Ministry of Economic Development of Azerbaijan appealed to the Cabinet of Ministers with a proposal of forming the Azerbaijani side of the composition of the commission. With the initiative of the government, Azerbaijani side will be headed by the Economic Development Minister Heydar Babayev and the Latvian side by Minister of Economy Aygars Shtokenbergs.
The normative and legal base between Azerbaijan and Latvia comprised of 10 agreements. In the economic sphere, Azerbaijan and Latvia have already signed agreements regarding mutual protection of investments, avoidance of double taxation, economical and scientific-technical
co-operation, etc.
The amount of the trade turnover between Azerbaijan and Latvia in 2005 equaled $7 million. This year, a growth is observed in the trade operations between the two countries, and over the half-year of 2006, the trade turnover equaled $6.6 mln.
Diesel fuel and the products of petrochemistry are reported in the export nomenclature, and from Latvia to Azerbaijan mainly dairy products and medicines are imported.
The government considers that the meetings of the business people of the two countries help increase the trade operations. It is expected to hold the second Azerbaijani-Latvian business forum within the visit. The first forum was held on 2-4 October 2005 in Baku.