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Hungaryâ€™s ambassador to Azerbaijan: Recent time the level of economic cooperation between Hungary and Azerbaijan unfortunately is at not satisfactory level - INTERVIEW

06 July 2011 10:25 (UTC +04:00)

Baku. Habil Suleymanzadeh â€“ APA. APAâ€™s Interview with Ambassador of Hungary to Azerbaijan Zsolt Csutora

-Transit countries and the shareholders in the Nabucco consortium have recently signed a contract in Turkey. Hungaryâ€™s â€žMOLâ€ is shareholder in the Nabucco consortium. How much is Hungary interested in Nabucco?

-Azerbaijan is rich in energy resources. Hungary in contrary is poor in energy resources. For example the majority of the Hungarian oil and gas demand is satisfied from import. Now 80% of the gas consumption is imported from Russia, from one source. Hungary is interested in the diversification of the energy import sources. Last year we imported a small volume of oil from Azerbaijan. We donâ€™t import gas yet. But we are ready to do so. We expect Azerbaijani gas via two routs, Nabucco and AGRI. Our interest is demonstrated by the fact that Hungarian Oil and Gas company â€žMOLâ€ is shareholder in the Nabucco consortium with the ownership of 16,67%. We hope that 2011 will be an important year. Big decisions are expected: for example contracts with the buyers of the Shah Deniz gas, investment decision on exploitation of the second phase of Shah Deniz, investment decision of the shareholders of the Nabucco. To our knowledge negotiations between SOCAR and the Hungarian Oil company MOL have already started about the sales of the Azeri gas. Regarding the AGRI project I can say that Hungary is a strong supporter of this project. Now the feasibility study is on the agenda. The difficulty is that all these decision makings are interlinked and interdependent. In summary we hope that long waited developments in Nabucco project are expected in 2011.

- How satisfactory is the current level of trade turnover between Azerbaijan and Hungary? It seems its level fell after the global financial crisis. How can the economic, commercial relations be revived?

-The trade turnover between Hungary and Azerbaijan has been growing steadily between 2004 and 2008 from 10,5 million USD to 85,7 million USD. Fortunately during the world economic and financial crisis in 2009 the level of the turnover practically did not change. In 2010 we can see a little decrease. If we look behind the figures we can see that the trade turnover has a very interesting peculiarity. The turnover is unilateral and unbalanced. For example in 2009 the export from Hungary to Azerbaijan was 85,6 million USD, the export of Azerbaijan to Hungary was only 900 USD. In 2010 Hungarian export to Azerbaijan was 77,8 million USD. Positive development that the Azerbaijani export to Hungary increased to 370 thousand USD, which consisted of energy. 49% of the Hungarian export to Azerbaijan is machinery, 31,8% are processed products and only 4% are food and drink. Positive, that in the first quarter of 2011 the trade turnover had grown by 8% comparing to the first quarter of 2010.
Recent time the level of economic cooperation between Hungary and Azerbaijan unfortunately is at not satisfactory level. Both sides recognize that the potential for the economic cooperation is bigger. Both Hungary and Azerbaijan recognized that we have to discover each other again and have to restore our economic ties. The Embassy of Hungary started to operate in Baku from the beginning of 2009. One of the tasks is to facilitate the development of economic relations. For this purpose Economic and Trade Section was set up and has been working in the Embassy. Azerbaijani companies and businessmen are welcomed in the economic and trade section. We are waiting them with open doors.
One of the potential area for the development of economic cooperation is agriculture. Hungary has a strong and well developed agriculture. We can offer our traditional products, for example various canned vegetables and fruits, smoked sausages, salami, etc. We can propose also our technology and machinery for the production process in the agriculture. We are ready to build various storage facilities, cold storages, greenhouses, processing machinery for the production line of the food products not only for big farms but for the small and medium size ones as well. We think that establishment of joint ventures between Azerbaijani and Hungarian businesses is possible. We see perspective in the common agricultural production in Azerbaijan for the CIS market as well.
Another potential area are environmental issues and renewable energy. For example water cleaning, solid waste management, recycling, cleaning up contaminated areas. In the field of renewable energy Hungary has large experiences in production of biogas, which can be used for example in greenhouses in agricultural farms.
In Azerbaijan the construction sector is booming. I can say that Hungarian construction companies have already working in Baku. Hungary is thinking to establish so-called Trade Houses abroad. Our goal is to establish it in Baku also in the near future.

-Hungaryâ€™s European Union presidency has recently ended. How do you evaluate the presidency in general and in terms of the development of the relations with the Eastern Partnership countries?

-I consider that Hungaryâ€™s EU presidency was successful enough. We reached 90 percent of our initial goals. As regards the development of the relations with the Eastern Partnership countries, much has been done for the relevant summit and the summit will be probably held under Polandâ€™s chairmanship. Though our presidency has ended, we will continue our work. The relations between the EU and Eastern Partnership countries are developing.

-The tourism sector has great potential in terms of the development of our relations. What are the prospects in this sphere?

-Visa department was opened at our embassy on June 1. It will pave the way for the development of both tourism and business relations. We are already issuing visas. As you know, this year has been declared Year of Tourism in Azerbaijan. Hungarian information center is functioning in Baku, it will give an impetus to the development of economic and humanitarian relations. I should say that Hungary can be considered super state in terms of the development of tourism industry. 40 million tourists traveled to Hungary last year. The population of Hungary is 10 million. This figure shows how the tourism industry of Hungary has developed. The first group of tourists from Hungary will travel to Azerbaijan in September, this year. Hungarian travel companies are working here. Moreover, as far as I know, Azerbaijani embassy in Hungary issued more visas in the four months of this year than throughout last year. This is the example of our countriesâ€™ rising interest. Hungarian President will visit Azerbaijan in autumn this year, arrangements are being made for this visit. Business forum will be held during the visit. It will give an impetus to the development of economic relations. It will be in parallel with the next meeting of the Intergovernmental Mixed Committee on Economic Cooperation to be held in Baku in 2011.
As you see, there are good prospects and I hope the trade turnover between our countries will double in the near future.