Azerbaijan seeks more investment, trade with RI

To enable more robust trade, Azerbaijan is seeking direct delivery of goods from Indonesia and vice versa, according to Azerbaijan Ambassador to Indonesia, Tamerlan Karayev.

At present, bilateral trade is through third-party countries, such as the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Turkey. Hence, despite the popularity of Indonesian goods there, many Azerbaijanis do not know where they originate from.

"The quality and prices of [Indonesian] goods, such as furniture, are really good in Azerbaijan [That’s why] we want to make it easier for our investors and traders by having direct connections with Indonesian partners,” Karayev said recently.

Apart from buying more from Indonesia, Azerbaijan is also seeking to export more, which would include agriculture products, such as fruit, vegetables and cotton, and chemicals, he added.

Trade between Indonesia and Azerbaijan has followed an upward trend in the past five years, surging by 21.84 percent on average each year to reach US$2.43 billion in 2014. Of that figure, Indonesia’s exports only totaled $5.57 million while Azerbaijani imports made up the vast bulk of the trade, resulting in a sizeable deficit.

Crude oil is the major commodity that Indonesia buys from the South Caucasus nation. Meanwhile, Indonesian exporters shipped primarily wood products, refrigerators, table and kitchenware, paper and soap.

Karayev added that Azerbaijani investors would also look into investing in sectors where they demonstrated expertise, such as oil refining, infrastructure and agriculture.

"Our firms should see the projects first. If they are economically interesting to them, they will be ready to come,” he said.

The Azerbaijan government and its Indonesian counterpart are preparing two visits by each head of state at the end of this year to improve economic partnerships.

Newly appointed Industry Ministry director general for international industrial security and access development Achmad Sigit Dwiwahjono said that finding ways to enable direct trade was also a key concern for Indonesia as it expected to sell more goods and commodities to Azerbaijan. "We can send a greater volume of goods if they need. If the prices are lower, they can buy a lot more,” he said.

Indonesia, for instance, had an interest in encouraging sales of natural rubber to feed numerous tire factories in Azerbaijan, Sigit added.

Azerbaijan currently buys Indonesian natural rubber from other countries, particularly the UAE.

In terms of investment, Sigit said, the government would welcome any project to help spur growth in the downstream industry, particularly agriculture-based sectors.

"We’ve invited them to process our palm oil here as they do that there to make chemical products,” he said, adding that there was a potential for Azerbaijani firms to engage in short-term infrastructure projects, such as seaports in the 14 planned industrial estates nationwide.