Cuba calls Azerbaijan to invest in its economy
Cuba urges Azerbaijani businessmen to invest in its economy and is ready to ensure protection of their investments, newly appointed Ambassador of Cuba to Azerbaijan Alfredo Nieves Portuondo said in an interview with Trend.
In March 2014, a law on foreign investments entered into force in Cuba, he said.
The law slashes taxes on profits from 30 percent to 15 percent and gives new investors eight years of exemption from paying taxes. Tax benefits for companies that are 100 percent foreign-owned are reserved for joint ventures with the Cuban state and investments linking foreign and Cuban companies.
Cuba has announced creation of a free economic zone, the Cuban ambassador added. The law on foreign investments in Cuba opens up more opportunities for the investments in the country, and favorable conditions are created for this, he noted.
It is necessary to identify areas that may be of interest to Azerbaijani investors, the diplomat said.
He added that Azerbaijan can also offer Cuba a lot of areas for cooperation.
Tourism sphere can surely become one of the important directions of cooperation, he said, adding that tourism industry of Cuba is one of the developed in the world.
Some 2.5-3 million tourists visit Cuba every year, he said. Cuba’s tourism industry is also open to Azerbaijani investments, the country is ready to accept Azerbaijani entrepreneurs, who are willing to invest in the Cuban tourism sector, the diplomat noted.
He also said that there are different ways to invest in the tourism sector of Cuba, adding that this can be made via direct Azerbaijani investments, creation of joint ventures or with the participation of a third country.
Azerbaijani investors can participate in such projects as the construction of hotels, shopping centers in the tourist areas, the development of the restaurant business, the delivery of food and other products for the tourism sector, etc., the diplomat said.
He added that the launch of direct air traffic between Istanbul and Havana by the Turkish Airlines company can also open good opportunities for Azerbaijani tourists and businessmen.
Azerbaijani travel companies can take advantage of the opening of the direct flight from Istanbul to Havana to increase the growth in tourist traffic between Azerbaijan and Cuba, the ambassador said.
In the future, the Cuban national airline may enter into an agreement with the Azerbaijan Airlines on the opening of air traffic between the two countries, he noted.
Azerbaijan and Cuba may also organize joint flights from Baku to Havana via Istanbul, and this issue has already been discussed with the national airline of Cuba, the diplomat said.
Trade settlement in national currencies to boost Azerbaijani, Turkish economies
Switching to the trade settlement in national currencies between Azerbaijan and Turkey will contribute to the economic growth, strengthen and stabilize the foreign trade operations between the two countries, Bulent Tufenkci, Turkish minister of customs and trade, said in an exclusive interview with Trend.
"The use of the Azerbaijani manat and the Turkish lira in the mutual trade settlement is very important, as it will reduce costs, strengthen risk control and reduce the sensitivity of the countries’ foreign exchange reserves to the external factors," the minister said.
"The trade settlement in national currencies will also eliminate the negative consequences associated with foreign currency deficit, especially during the crisis period," the minister said. "The elimination of the risk of exchange rate change will reduce the uncertainty in the prices on imported goods, as well as contradictions in foreign trade."
Tufenkci said that the Turkey-Azerbaijan relations are based on the brotherhood of peoples, which is above than the economic and diplomatic interests.
"The relations between the two states, one nation - Turkey and Azerbaijan are at the highest level and will be further intensified," the minister said.
He added that meanwhile, the current unstable situation in the world economy also affected the mutual trade between the countries.
"The export of Turkish goods to Azerbaijan amounted to $2.9 billion in 2014, while $2 billion in 2015," he said. "The import of Azerbaijani goods amounted to $291 million in 2014 and $232 million in 2015."
"Turkey invested $1.9 billion in Azerbaijan in 2014, $276 million in 2015," he added. "Azerbaijani investments in the Turkish economy totaled $884 in 2014 and $839 million in 2015."
He said that Turkey intends to be among the top ten economies in the world by 2023 and much was done for this purpose in 2002-2016.
"Turkey wants to strengthen its economy by simplifying and enhancing trade security with the regional countries," he said. "For this purpose, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan offered Russia, Iran and China to make trade settlements in national currencies. The negotiations on this issue have already begun."
"Switching to the trade settlements with those countries in national currencies will mainly allow carrying out trade settlements with Turkey without using dollar and euro," the minister said.
He added that Russia has positively responded to this initiative and the officials said that perhaps, the actions will be taken to make the trade settlements in the national currency in a short period of time.
"Iran's Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani also supported Erdogan's proposal and said that Tehran always stands for the use of national currencies in trade," the minister said. "The first currency swap was conducted between China and Turkey November 26, 2016. We believe that we will get some results in the near future."
Azerbaijan to create about 15 business incubators by 2020
Azerbaijan will annually create about five new business incubation centers in the next three years, says the Strategic Road Map for the Manufacture of Small and Medium Entrepreneurship-Level Consumer Goods in Azerbaijan.
The main goal formulated in the Road Map is to ensure support for start-up projects.
Ensuring the functioning of about 25 start-ups every year and creating at least 3-5 model enterprises are among concrete tasks that are to be accomplished by 2020.
It is expected to develop stimulating mechanisms in the innovation activities in 2017 and to create at least three innovation-oriented regional clusters by 2020, according to the Road Map.
In addition, it is envisaged to create innovative infrastructure to stimulate activities of small and medium enterprises in 2017-2020.
Visa ready to offer Azerbaijan innovations in cashless payments
The biggest opportunity for developing cashless payments market in Azerbaijan is concentrated within applying various innovations, says Mandy Lamb, Visa group country manager for CIS and Southeastern European countries.
Technologies and innovations are main part of the support Visa provides to the market, Lamb said in an interview with Trend.
"Consumers are more and more connected and want to rely on their mobile telephones while making transactions," she said. "Therefore, we need to make sure that they can consolidate their plastic cards and their mobile phones, and that they have access points through which they can make their payments. Therefore, technologies and innovations present major part of support we provide to the market."
"The network is also very important, the fact that you can have the same experience here as in another country and that you can have the same rules which are consistent in every country," she added. "So I believe that the biggest opportunity in the market of Azerbaijan is certainly about innovations – moving from the physical plastic cards into digitally issued cards and being able to use it in contactless environment, using mobile payments while purchasing online etc."
Lamb mentioned that Visa is working on similar initiatives within the entire CIS, including Azerbaijan.
"I believe, our company is ready to offer Azerbaijan a number of rules and innovations," she said. "For example, together with our partners we have launched "Zero Liability" policy, which is an example of our global mandate, our global program."
"Thanks to this policy, consumers can feel that they and their cards are very well protected against frauds," Lamb added. "It is very important for us to introduce these kinds of rules and innovations that are relevant for the country."
Lamb added that governments of countries play major part in developing cashless payments, and therefore, Visa actively cooperates with them.
"We actively cooperate with governments of various countries all over the world, as they play a critical role in helping us in expanding of contactless terminals in points of sales, as well as in increasing financial literacy of the population," she said. "We work using the following model – we have a consumer, a merchant, as well as an issuer bank and an acquirer bank. Therefore, we call it the four-party model."
Lamb said that governments, which want to develop cashless economy successfully, must work with all four sides of this model.
"They must work with consumers, raise their literacy, explain advantages of using cards rather than cash and carry out much work around financial literacy," she added. "On the other hand, government can also work with merchants. There are countries, where government issues special mandate that there should be point of sale terminals at each store."
"Such ideas are very important for the government, as well as for Visa to work on the market," she said. "It is also essential to encourage particularly smaller merchants to start accepting cards. Furthermore, from issuer and acquirer side it is important to make sure that cashless payments are beneficial from the tax perspective."
In conclusion, Lamb said all these measures should help the government move out the so-called grey economy, as well as ensure transparent collection of taxes.
According to the data from the Central Bank of Azerbaijan, in October 2016, the value of payment card transactions at ATMs and POS terminals was 1.07 billion manats, growing by 4 percent compared to October 2015.
There were about 7.11 million payment card transactions in Azerbaijan in October 2016.