The Belgian Chamber of Commerce may send a mission to Azerbaijan in May, Chairman of the Belgian-Azerbaijani Chamber of Commerce Stef Goris told Trend in an exclusive interview.
"Belgian companies may be interested in the agricultural exhibition. We will try to gather interested companies and agencies in Belgium. Once we return to Brussels, we will address this issue," he said.
According to Goris, Belgian companies are showing significant interest in cooperating with Azerbaijan, especially in the fields of metallurgy, logistics, and transportation.
"Interaction between the two sides is reaching a new level thanks to the initiatives of the Belgian-Azerbaijani Chamber of Commerce, which has become an important platform for the development of business ties between the two countries," he said.
The chairman emphasized that, in the Chamber's opinion, there are still many opportunities to improve economic and trade relations between Belgium and Azerbaijan.
"When we compare the situation with other European countries, in my personal opinion and the opinion of the Chamber's Board members, we are a bit behind, and we are now working to close this gap. That is why a group of Belgian entrepreneurs initiated the creation of the Belgian-Azerbaijani Chamber of Commerce. I would like to emphasize that our Chamber is exclusively a private initiative. It is not linked to any governmental bodies. We are a group of businessmen," Goris noted.
He added that the Belgian-Azerbaijani Chamber of Commerce strives for parity representation and is also attracting Azerbaijani companies to participate.
"I am pleased to report that we already have several Azerbaijani companies expressing interest in joining the Chamber. We met with them during our visit to Baku, and one of the goals of the trip was to familiarize ourselves with Azerbaijani members of the Chamber," he said.
Stef Goris noted that these business meetings were very interesting and concrete. He also added that the Board of Directors of the Belgian-Azerbaijani Chamber of Commerce is very pleased with the initial results of this mission.
"At the moment, metallurgy, logistics, and transportation are of the greatest interest to companies from both countries. We are trying to be a linking element that connects Azerbaijani and Belgian companies to collaborate and find solutions beneficial to both sides. We are confident that good results await us in the near future," he stated.
Talking about future prospects, the chairman of the Chamber expressed gratitude to Azerbaijani government structures for the opportunity to hold high-level meetings with various agencies and ministries.
"First of all, we had a meeting with the Export and Investment Promotion Agency of Azerbaijan (AZPROMO), because the main goal of our mission was to explore opportunities for future cooperation. In this context, we had a very interesting and productive dialogue with AZPROMO's head, Yusif Abdullayev. We also held negotiations with Azerbaijani companies and met with the Azerbaijan Investment Holding, which manages state-owned enterprises.
"This meeting was very insightful for us. It provided an understanding that active work is being done in the field of international trade," he concluded.
