Baku decided to supply crude oil to Tajikistan, which will be used for processing at a local refinery
Azerbaijan will supply crude oil to Tajikistan, which will be processed at a plant in the Dangara free economic zone (FEZ). This was reported by the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade of Tajikistan following a meeting of the intergovernmental commission on trade and economic cooperation between the two states. “At the meeting of the commission, in order to fulfill the instructions and orders of the presidents of the two countries, the parties agreed to implement specific projects in the field of strengthening trade and economic cooperation, creating joint industrial enterprises, including in the territory of free economic zones of the Republic of Tajikistan,” says the press service. The meeting, which took place in Baku, was attended by the Minister of Economic Development and Trade of Tajikistan Zavki Amin Zavkizoda and the Minister of Ecology and Natural Resources of Azerbaijan Mukhtar Babayev The parties also discussed the possibility of raising funds for the reconstruction of Tajikistan’s aluminum production capacities, as well as the prospect of importing alumina from Azerbaijan. In addition, the issues of providing discounts on transportation by rail, developing tourism, exploring Tajikistan’s deposits and increasing bilateral trade turnover were raised. This is not the first evidence of Azerbaijan’s development of trade and economic cooperation with Central Asian countries in recent times. As TRT wrote in Russian, in June, Prime Minister of Kazakhstan Alikhan Smailov, during a visit to Baku, announced his intention to increase trade turnover with Azerbaijan to $1 billion. At the same time, by the end of 2022, trade turnover between the two countries increased by 40% and exceeded $460 million. Based on the results of 4 months of this year, mutual trade increased by 40% compared to last year’s figures and amounted to $185 million.
