The president made the remarks at the Azerbaijani-Croatian business forum in Baku Oct. 25.

He noted that very important issues were discussed at the meetings held with the Croatian president in Azerbaijan.

“The discussions were focused on economic cooperation. We are pleased that the Croatian president is accompanied by a group of Croatian businessmen and they are attending today’s business forum,” said Ilham Aliyev. “It was a successful visit. We once again emphasized our strategic partnership and set out the main directions of the cooperation.

Azerbaijan and Croatia are allies and friends, the president said calling on businessmen from two countries to expand bilateral ties by taking advantage of these opportunities.

He noted that investment and joint activities are of great importance.

“We implemented several joint projects in the past and it’s time to expand import-export operations,” said the president.

Ilham Aliyev said he had meetings in a variety of formats with his Croatian counterpart yesterday.

He stressed that there are several proposals on the use of Azerbaijan’s climate conditions and import of certain products from Croatia.

“I am sure that a broader discussion will be held at today’s forum. Here we are talking about mutually beneficial cooperation,” said President Aliyev. “We are aware of Croatia`s exports. And you also know that what kinds of products are exported to Azerbaijan. In this forum, it’s necessary to pay attention to the issues.”

The head of state also noted the need to consider issues of mutual investment.

“We are interested in the creation of new industry areas in our country. We are talking about the pharmaceutical industry,” said President Aliyev underlining that Croatia has a great experience in this field.

“From this perspective, we are dependent on imports. It might be beneficial to establish Azerbaijan-Croatia joint pharmaceutical ventures, because the number of Azerbaijani population is close to 10 million,” added the president.

More about: