Baku.
During a visit to Qatar, a delegation from the Ministry of Economic
Development, for the first time, put forward a proposal to establish a joint
investment fund to finance projects in two and third countries. The Ministry of Economic Development Press
Service said that the idea was received with interest. In particular, Qataris were invited to invest
in the private sector and the development of industrial parks in Azerbaijan.
They discussed issues of cooperation in infrastructure, tourism, agriculture,
education, science and technology.
Mustafayev, the Minister of Economic
Development, heads the delegation which includes representatives from the Fund
to Promote Exports and Investments in Azerbaijan (AZPROMO), the state-run
Azerbaijan Investment Company (AIC), and two newly created industrial parks
(Sumgait chemical industrial park and the High-Tech Park).
The delegation was received by the
Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of Qatar, Hamid bin Jassim bin Jaber Al Thani
and members of the Government. The Azerbaijani leadership has long courted
Qatari sheikhs. Late last year, Hamid Al-Thani, accompanied by a large retinue
of his court, shot game in the hunting estate Mahmudchala in the Salyan
district of Azerbaijan for rare birds. It seems understanding between the
leaderships is improving. In October 2012, at the request of official Baku,
Vodafone Qatar canceled the roaming agreement with actions in the occupied
territories of Azerbaijan Armenian Karabakh Telekom. A foundation for close
cooperation provides a general value approach within the parties. According to the report from the research
firm The Economist Intelligence Unit (analytical division of the British
magazine Economist) "Democracy Index of the world in 2012" (Democracy
Index 2012), Qatar and Azerbaijan neighbors are on the list of authoritarian
regimes. Azerbaijan is just one-step ahead of Qatar on the degree of
authoritarianism. The countries are
respectively No 139 and No 138 on the list.