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Azerbaijani president to visit Belarus on November 12

The president of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, is scheduled to visit Belarus on November 12, said the press office of the Belarusian Council of Ministers.

Preparations for the visit were under discussion at a meeting between Uladzimir Syamashka, Belarus’ first deputy prime minister, and his Azerbaijani counterpart, Yagub Eyubov, in Minsk on October 22.

Mr. Syamashka said that Belarusian engineering companies planned to launch assembly plants in Azerbaijan and increase farm machinery exports to the Caucasian country.

He noted that Prime Minister Syarhey Sidorski had visited Azerbaijan this past July and the country also had been visited by officials representing the Belarusian industry, construction and agriculture ministries.

Mr. Eyubov, for his part, praised the performance of the Belarusian industrial sector and noted that Azerbaijan’s GDP had grown by more than six percent in the first nine months of this year despite the global economic downturn. Thus, he said, both countries have an opportunity to step up mutually beneficial economic cooperation.

Azerbaijan was Belarus’ sixth-largest trade partner among the CIS countries in 2008. Bilateral trade totaled $71.5 million from January through August of this year. //BelaPAN