Stavropol - Azerbaijan: cooperation for the sake of the future

The Stavropol State Agrarian University hospitably opened its doors to 400 participants of the VIII Russian-Azerbaijani Interregional Forum, designed to expand mutually beneficial relations in agribusiness, tourism, healthcare, industry, and the humanities.

With special southern hospitality, the autumn Stavropol met its current and future partners and colleagues from the Republic of Azerbaijan. But if the city itself pleased the guests with generous ethnographic metochions in the central square, here during the festival "Southern Hospitality" its national cultures were represented by the peoples of the North Caucasus and Southern Federal Districts, the oldest and authoritative university of the region provided its best sites for the successful work of five discussion round tables.

Representatives of 30 constituent entities of the Russian Federation, including the North Caucasus republics, discussed issues of mutually beneficial partnership with representatives of the authorities and business of Azerbaijan in an open dialogue. Expressing their readiness for cooperation, in the conditions of a large-scale forum, they were able to express themselves by telling about the unconditional advantages of their territories.

Nevertheless, the tandem of the barn of Stavropol and solar Azerbaijan was, of course, in the center of attention, because the forum itself was held under the aegis of two ministries - the Ministry of Economic Development of the Russian Federation and the Ministry of Economy of the Republic of Azerbaijan. This country is one of the main business partners of the region: the foreign trade turnover for the first and second quarters of this year exceeded $ 66 million. The export basket of the Stavropol region is dominated by cereals, fertilizers, plastic products, electricity meters. The region imports mainly alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages, organic chemical compounds.

Presentation of the experience and potential of industrial clusters and technology parks, joint projects in the field of industry; the establishment of an exchange of tourist flows and the improvement of the transport infrastructure; innovative development of health care; activation of youth cooperation; the implementation of projects in the field of science, culture and sports - such is the considerable range of discussions with the heated debate caused by the mutual interest of the two main southern regions and large business "players."

Pros and cons, the results and options for removing barriers to bilateral cooperation in the agro-industrial complex were discussed at the round table, chaired by the First Deputy Prime Minister of the Stavropol Territory Nikolai Velikdan, moderator from the host party and his colleague Namig Mammadov, head of the science and education department of the Agriculture Ministry of the Republic of Azerbaijan.

"Today Azerbaijan holds the leading positions on the volume of grain exports from the Stavropol Territory," Nikolay Velikdan, First Deputy Chairman of the Government of the ST, said. - This is our long-time business and perspective partner. Annually Azerbaijan imports from the edge about one million tons of grain. In this list and technical oilseeds - rape, sunflower - in the amount of up to 200 thousand tons per year. Azerbaijanis are also interested in supplying our seed material, especially winter wheat, breeding animals and breeding bioproducts. The possibility of creating joint ventures in the territory of the Stavropol Territory for storage, primary and deep processing of agricultural products is considered.

To arouse the interest of investors and give a new impetus to the development of Russian-Azerbaijani relations, the round table participants presented their promising projects and unique technologies, voiced specific proposals, realizing that the existing annual turnover of 130 million dollars a year is not the limit for the region and the Republic, which are associated for many years with friendly, stable, mutually beneficial cooperation.

So, for example, the participants of the discussion got acquainted with the investment project "Vostochny", which will add 300 jobs in the Levokumsky district, and from August 2018 will start producing ecologically clean tomatoes and cucumbers - up to 4.5 thousand tons per year. The group of companies "Resource" - the leading importer of poultry meat in Russia, which does not use growth stimulators, but also uses "shock" frost, also announced its competitive advantages. It was announced that the Stavropol Territory is one of the cleanest birds in terms of veterinary control, and veterinary issues in this southern region are being resolved at the highest level. "Resource" sends over 1,000 tons of poultry meat a month to Azerbaijan.

Representatives of Rosselkhozbank, financing, including Vostochny, and VTB Bank demonstrated the transparency of credit policy. Bankers told about the directions of their work (grain growing, greenhouse complexes, poultry farming and meat production, eggs, etc.) and growth dynamics of the loan portfolio of the agro-industrial complex. It was noted that already a huge number of agrarians revised their positions in relation to lending, having felt the availability of a credit transaction in different segments.

At the same time, in the comments of the moderator Nikolay Velikdan, it was said: "Banks need to see agricultural producers of various forms of ownership, there must be a strategy for everyone."

As a result, the round table showed that there are prerequisites for a new breakthrough in the agro-industrial complex industry, the potential of the parties is great, interest in a breakthrough in the agrosphere is mutual!

Next, the VIII Russian-Azerbaijani Interregional Forum "Investments, Innovations, Tourism" continued in the Government building of the Stavropol Territory, where the plenary session was held. The Minister of Economic Development of Russia Maxim Oreshkin, the Minister of Economy of Azerbaijan Shahin Mustafayev, the Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ambassador of Azerbaijan to the Russian Federation Polad Bulbuloglu, the Governor of the Stavropol Territory Vladimir Vladimirov, the representatives of the authorities and business circles of Azerbaijan and Russia took part in his work. 

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