Italy keen to work in Azerbaijani market

/By Azernews/

By Amina Nazarli

Italy, which remains the major trade partner of Azerbaijan in Europe for the past several years, is very interested in investing in the country.

Giovanni Bella, the Vice President of the Italy-Azerbaijan Chamber of Commerce and head of the Bella Giovanni Shipping & Trading SRL, said that Italian companies show interest to work in the Azerbaijani market.

He emphasized that the most attracting fields for the Italian businessmen are logistics, alternative energy, hardware, ecology, jewelry, construction, agriculture and agricultural complex, certification and food industry.

Bella believes that this interest is a result of the recent visit paid by an Italian business delegation to Azerbaijan.

"Representatives of 20 companies held meetings at the Azerbaijan Export and Investment Promotion Foundation (AZPROMO), where they met with the Azerbaijani Deputy Economy Minister Sevinj Hasanova, as well as at the State Agency on Alternative and Renewable Energy Sources, Tamiz Shahar JSC, and at the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources," he told Trend.

Such visits of Italian businessmen are expecting to be held in future to study the country's investment opportunities.

"Azerbaijan has a very favorable investment climate and businessmen are convinced of this personally," Bella said.

Azerbaijan and Italy actively continue their joint work in the business sphere and the southern European country ranked first in the list of Azerbaijan's foreign trade partners in Q1 2016 with trade turnover of $462.44 million.

Meanwhile, work is underway to hold an art gallery at the Ferrari store during the 2016 Formula 1 Grand Prix of Europe in Baku, said Bella, adding that permissions have already been obtained from the embassies of Azerbaijan and Italy, as well as from Ferrari's head office.

"The Bella Giovanni Shipping & Trading SRL, which is working with the Azerbaijani businessmen for 10 years already, has offered its services on execution of documents of Azerbaijan's state oil company SOCAR in Italy's territory," he explained.

Bella further went on saying that Azerbaijan can, in turn, offer Italy and other European countries its quality agriculture products.

"Azerbaijan can supply the Italian market with such products as pomegranates, nuts, and wood," he said. "For example, a glass of pomegranate juice in Italy costs five euros, it is an expensive product, and there are no such high-quality pomegranate sorts in the market as in Azerbaijan."

He emphasized that Azerbaijan could supply nuts for a number of companies, as well as wood for the furniture makers.

Bella also pointed hunting as one of the interesting purposes to attract Italian tourists.

"Our main goal is to introduce Azerbaijan's products and opportunities in Italy at an appropriate level," noted Bella.

Italy, being the largest importer of Azerbaijani goods, enjoy good relations with the country and export from Italy to Azerbaijan is also growing year by year.

Azerbaijan is the largest supplier of oil to Italy, and with the launch of the Southern Gas Corridor will supply Shah Deniz gas to this country.

The South Caucasus country has made a very important contribution to the preservation of historical heritage of Italy, funding and donating several cultural projects in this country.