Muhammad Shakeel Munir, President, Islamabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry (ICCI) leading a 120 member business delegation visited Azerbaijan and organized a very successful “Business Opportunities Conference” in Baku, which was attended by a large number of business community of Azerbaijan. ICCI delegation was representing various sectors including marble & granite, construction & real estate, building materials, pharmaceuticals, textiles, light engineering, IT & telecom, food, healthcare etc. Sahib Mammadov, Deputy Minister of Economy of Azerbaijan was the Chief Guest of BOC.

Speaking at the occasion, Sahib Mammadov, Deputy Minister of Economy of Azerbaijan welcomed the ICCI delegation and said that their visit would open a new window of growing trade and economic relations between Azerbaijan and Pakistan. He said that a business delegation of Azerbaijan would also visit Pakistan in coming months to further strengthen business linkages between the two countries and ICCI should host them. He said that Azerbaijan was establishing many Special Economic Zones that offered 10-year tax holidays and invited Pakistani investors to invest in these SEZs and improve their business prospects. Muhammad Shakeel Munir, President, Islamabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry said that the main purpose of organizing Business Conference in Baku is to provide a platform to the business communities of both countries to interact and explore bilateral cooperation in areas of interest. He said that the geo-strategic locations of Pakistan and Azerbaijan provided them easy access to their respective regional markets, therefore, close cooperation would help them in promoting their trade and exports. He thanked the Ambassador of Azerbaijan to Pakistan, Ambassador of Pakistan to Azerbaijan and President Pak-Azerbaijan Economic Cooperation Chamber for their cooperation & support to make the visit of ICCI delegation very successful.

H.E.Bilal Hayee, Ambassador of Pakistan to Azerbaijan lauded ICCI for bringing a big delegation to Azerbaijan and hoped that it would strengthen business linkages between the two countries and help improve bilateral trade ties. He said that an IT Expo of Pakistan would be organized in Baku in near future to introduce the potential of Pakistani IT companies in Azerbaijan. He said that after the start of direct flights, efforts were afoot to establish road links between Pakistan and Azerbaijan that would help in improving bilateral trade relations as well.

The representatives of the Small and Medium Business Development Agency of Azerbaijan said that his country was offering good incentives to local and foreign SMEs and invited Pakistani SMEs to set up their businesses in Azerbaijan and export their products to the huge market of Central Asian States.

Khurram Javaid Bhatti President Pak-Azerbaijan Economic Cooperation Chamber and Yusif Abdullayev Acting President Export & Investment Promotion Agency of Azerbaijan also spoke at the occasion and hoped that the visit of ICCI delegation would start a new chapter of growing business and investment relations between Pakistan and Azerbaijan. MoUs of cooperation between ICCI and Pak-Azerbaijan Economic Cooperation Chamber as well as between Pakistani and Azeri companies were signed at the occasion. A cake cutting ceremony was also held to celebrate the 30 years of diplomatic relations between Pakistan and Azerbaijan. Mr.Muhammad Faheem Khan Vice President ICCI, Engr.Azhar Ul Islam, Faseeh Ullah Khan, Ch Muhammad Ali, Hamayun Kabir, Muhammad Shabbir,  Ch.Javed Iqbal, Ch.Ashraf Farzand, Imtiaz Ali Rastgar, Muhammad Naveed Malik, Ashfaq Chatha, Zia Khalid Chaudhry, Ashar Hafeez and others were in the ICCI delegation.