Azerbaijani-Bulgarian Business Forum records trade turnover growth

The Azerbaijani-Bulgarian Business Forum, an initiative organized by the Azerbaijan Export and Investment Promotion Foundation (AZPROMO) and backed by the Ministry of Economy, is currently underway in Baku. The forum coincides with the official visit of Bulgarian President Rumen Radev and has attracted significant attention from key figures in both nations.

Dimitar Bratanov, Chairman of the Bulgarian-Azerbaijani Chamber of Commerce and Industry, alongside Zohrab Gadirov, Deputy Executive Director of AZPROMO, and Sahib Mammadov, Deputy Minister of Economy of Azerbaijan, are among the prominent attendees. The event has drawn approximately 120 businessmen from diverse sectors such as industry, transport, logistics, agriculture, ICT, and more traditional fields like oil and gas, construction, and engineering.

There are 15 Bulgarian companies with active operations in Azerbaijan, reflecting the growing business synergy between the two countries. This interaction has led to a 37.4% increase in trade turnover in 2023, reaching a total of $511 million, with a favorable balance of $259 million for Azerbaijan.

Energy cooperation remains a cornerstone of the bilateral economic relationship, highlighted by the gas supply agreement signed in 2013. This agreement facilitates the annual transport of 1 billion cubic meters of natural gas from Azerbaijan’s Shah Deniz field to Bulgaria via the Trans-Adriatic Gas Pipeline (TAP) and the Greece-Bulgaria gas interconnector, which became operational on October 1, 2022.

Further strengthening these ties, on April 25, 2023, the President of Azerbaijan took part in an important ceremony in Sofia - the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding aimed at expanding cooperation between SOCAR (the State Oil Company of the Republic of Azerbaijan) and the gas transportation operators of Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary and Slovakia. This memorandum, proposed by the Bulgarian side and dubbed the "Solidarity Ring," aims to facilitate additional Azerbaijani gas supplies to Europe through modernized transmission systems across these nations.

President Aliyev highlighted the impactful results of this cooperation in a press conference with President Rumen Radev, noting that Azerbaijani gas deliveries to Bulgaria surged to 1.25 billion cubic meters in 2023 from 600 million in 2022. This significant increase underscores the strategic importance of the forum and the bilateral initiatives, which are set to deepen the economic linkages between Azerbaijan and Bulgaria.