The Ministry’s Public Relations reports that, the Joint Session of Iran-Azerbaijan’s Commercial and Economic Cooperation was held in Tabriz in presence of Mahmoud Vaezi, the Iranian ICT Minister, and Shahin Mustafayev, the Minister of Economy and Industry of the Republic of Azerbaijan.
In this meeting, Iran’s Communication Minister referred to the vast developments taking place between Iran and neighboring countries in the present government, describing that: “As it is quite apparent from the presence of Iran in International Communities, the policy of the government of ‘wisdom and hope’ is developing relations with neighboring countries, especially Azerbaijan; and from what we remember from the independence of the Azerbaijan Republic to this very date, at no times the relationship between Iran and Azerbaijan has been this extensive.”
He also stated that: “We have managed to arrive at positive agreements with Azerbaijan regarding political and security issues and in parallel to these topics, the basic and infrastructural problems of economic relations with Azerbaijan Republic was solved through an extensive two-year effort; such problems and issues that went back as far as 10 years ago.”
Dr. Vaezi emphasized that: “After years of hard work we managed to sign an agreement today which had started taking shape almost five years ago; and we held this session today at this place to overcome all the existing issues concerning the development of relations between our two countries.”
The ICT Minister included that: “Problems arise when you are actually doing and accomplishing something, then they gradually diminish; the policy of our government in addressing these problems is to refrain from centralization of Tehran and it gladdens our heart when our provinces accomplish something at the national level.”
Dr. Vaezi emphasized that the border provinces possess great potentials for addressing national issues, stating that: “Since East-Azerbaijan province has vast experiences in trade and commerce, it also enjoys the right capacity for increasing economic relations with the Azerbaijan Republic.”
He recounted some of the accomplishments of the government during the past two years, reminding that: “The important thing is that the government does not believe in taking the sole charge of everything, and the role of the government is making decisions and supervision; and what is apparent from the spirit of science-based economy, is handing things over to the people and all things have to be gradually handed over to the private sector; the government being only the facilitator.”
The ICT Minister referred to the Iran-Azerbaijan’s Joint Commercial-Economic Session, saying that: “In our joint meetings and sessions of the related representatives it was decided that the agency and monetary relations will be handled by the Iranian ‘Rial’ and the Azeri ‘Manat’, and in parallel we will also activate the Melli Bank in Azerbaijan.”
He continued by pointing out the other outputs of these sessions, by saying: “We decided to facilitate visa issuance and transportation between our two countries, and we are also negotiating in regard to tariffs so that Iranian companies can compete with Azeri companies in the Azerbaijan Republic.”
Dr. Vaezi concluded by emphasizing that: “Both parties are eager to witness Azeri investors in Iran and Iranian investors in the Azerbaijan Republic, participating in economic activities; the governments should support both sides during these interactions.”