Finance

Finance

Under Secretary of the U.S. Secretary of State to chair Azerbaijan-US intergovernmental commission

29 March 2012 09:10 (UTC +04:00)

Baku. Victoria Dementyeva - APA-Economics. Robert Hormats, Under Secretary for Economic, Business, and Agricultural Affairs of the U.S. Secretary of State will chair Azerbaijan-US intergovernmental commission, APA reports quoting website of the U.S Department of State.

Hormats said that the first meeting of the commission would be hold in Washington: â€œWe support efforts of Azerbaijan for membership at WTO. Since 2004, its economy has tripled in size. According to the World Bank, the poverty rate has dropped from 49 percent in 2003 to about 9 percent in 2009. Its imports from the United States, at $328 million in 2011, are about 30 percent greater than the 2010 total of $253 million. The Azerbaijan government has identified agriculture, information and communications technology, transportation, and tourism as priority economic sectors for development. U.S. firms can play a key role in this development. We are now re-launching the U.S.-Azerbaijan Economic Partnership Commission, which I plan to co-chair with Azerbaijanâ€™s Minister of Finance soon in Washington. And we support its efforts to become a member of the WTO".

Note that, FinMinister Samir Sharifov heads the Commission on the Azerbaijan.