Ambassador: Croatia sees potential in tourism development in liberated Azerbaijani territories

Azerbaijan considers tourism as an economic development priority. After the Patriotic War and the liberation of the territories occupied for almost 30 years, the development of this sector in these regions was designated as a target. According to the Croatian ambassador to Azerbaijan, cooperation between the European country and Azerbaijan in this area can be expanded.

In general, Azerbaijan and Croatia enjoy strong economic and political ties, which have become even stronger after the opening of the Croatian Embassy in Azerbaijan in 2019.

Branko Zebic, ambassador of Croatia to Azerbaijan, spoke in an interview with Report about economic and energy cooperation between the countries, the role of Croatian companies in demining the liberated Azerbaijani territories and the prospects for bilateral relations.

- How do you assess bilateral relations between Croatia and Azerbaijan in general? How is the trade and economic partnership developing between the countries? What projects exist within the technological cooperation?

- Bilateral relations between the two countries are constantly developing, this applies to both political cooperation and trade turnover and economic activity. There is also the issue of demining the liberated territories, which is very important for Azerbaijan.

The Embassy of Croatia in Azerbaijan was opened four years ago. Then the trade turnover between our countries was about $300 million. For 2022, I only have data for the first eight months - it has already exceeded $700 million. I don't have a renewed data for the whole year because 2023 has just started, it won't be until the end of January, but the numbers will most likely be over $1 billion. This is a fairly significant indicator for small countries that don’t have common borders. This means that Croatia is an important trading partner for Azerbaijan and vice versa.

But what is especially important for Azerbaijan is that we import a fairly large amount of Azerbaijani oil, export of Azerbaijani oil to Croatia accounts for more than 90% of the trade turnover. Our exports to your country, although not comparable with imports from Azerbaijan for obvious reasons, are also growing. Four years ago, Croatia’s export to Azerbaijan was only about $1-2 million, and now it is more than $7 million.

With regard to technological cooperation, I would like to highlight the good cooperation between our IT companies. Croatia is a country with quite a lot of good IT companies focused on foreign markets and cooperation with foreign countries. One of them is Sedam IT, the other is Span, which are actively working in Azerbaijan. Also, Matison, a subsidiary of Sedam, successfully cooperates with the well-known Azerbaijani company Risk. They will complete a joint second project for Azerbaijani mobile operators very soon. We are very proud of that, as this is a very important segment of bilateral cooperation.

- What can you say about the energy cooperation between Azerbaijan and Croatia?

- In addition to the fact that, as I said, we are a major importer of Azerbaijani oil, there is one long-standing gas project - the Ionian Adriatic Pipeline (IAP). It has not yet been implemented, but Croatia still fully supports it. And I am sure that Azerbaijan too. This project is designed to ensure the delivery of gas from the Caspian Sea to the south of Croatia. The Southern Gas Corridor connects Azerbaijan with Italy through Georgia, Turkiye, Greece and Albania to the Adriatic Sea. The IAP envisages that from the Southern Gas Corridor in Albania, the line will extend north to Montenegro and then to Croatia.

This project is technically feasible. But a company has not yet been created for its construction and management among four countries - Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and Albania. This is due to some problems in Montenegro. It is related to the issue of issuing a green card (permits) for the pipeline route. However, we expect them to look into this issue soon.

In addition, we can deal with this with the help of the European Commission, because this gas pipeline is also included in the list of projects of interest to the European Union, as the EU seeks to diversify gas supplies. In this regard, we hope that in the near future we will implement this project.

- Could you please tell us more about the role of Croatian companies in demining work in the liberated Azerbaijani territories?

- As you know, Croatia, unfortunately, has gone through the same situation that Azerbaijan is going through now - we had a lot of mined territories. We have been fighting this problem for over 25 years and there are still some areas in Croatia that need to be cleared.

Of course, we have completed most of this task successfully, and we have a lot of experience in demining work. There are Croatian companies with a lot of experience in this area, from the production of demining machines to those that are directly engaged in physical demining.

All this is well known to Azerbaijan, your demining agency ANAMA has been cooperating with the Croatian side for some time.

One of them is DOK-ING, which manufactures demining machines. Its technique works in Karabakh, and has proven itself very well.

Regarding the physical demining by foreign companies, as far as I know, this issue is still under consideration. At present, Azerbaijan is mainly engaged in demining on its own, but I think that it is planned to attract foreign companies to carry out this large-scale one.

I think that the Croatian company Piper is one of those companies that can be included in the demining work in Azerbaijan.

There is also a DOK-ING division, which is not associated with machines, it is engaged in manual demining, as well as the use of trained dogs for this purpose. It seems that Azerbaijan has concluded a contract with them, and 10-12 sapper dogs will be delivered to Azerbaijan this year.

- In your recent interview, you said that there is potential for expanding cooperation in the agricultural and food industries. Could you please tell us more about it?

- Though our countries have signed a Memorandum of Understanding on cooperation in this area, unfortunately, there are no significant results so far. Of course, this is one of the areas where the potential should be explored and exploited. It is quite possible that this will be a good topic for discussion at the next meeting of the intergovernmental commission.

We are aiming for Croatian food processing companies to enter the Azerbaijani market, so far this has not been successful, but I am in regular contact with AZPROMO and other agencies in Azerbaijan. Croatia has companies specializing in the processing of agricultural products and the production of high-quality food products, one of them is the largest in Southeast Europe with over 100 years of history and is export-oriented to more than 100 countries around the world.

- What can you say about the work of the joint commission on economic cooperation between Azerbaijan and Croatia? Is the date of the next commission to be held in Baku known?

- In 2021, the second meeting of the intergovernmental commission on economic cooperation between our countries was held in Zagreb.

We expect that the next, third session will be held this year in Baku. The date has yet to be determined.

I talked about this a few weeks ago with ex-Minister of Culture Anar Karimov, who was the co-chair of the intergovernmental commission, but as you know, he left his post, so we are waiting for a new appointment from the Azerbaijani side.

I think it won’t affect the schedule of the next meeting of the intergovernmental commission.

- Could you share your vision of the prospects for cooperation between our countries in the tourism sector? Before Croatia joined the EU, we had a visa-free regime for tourists, which contributed to the intensification of tourist exchange. How can Azerbaijan and Croatia improve cooperation in the tourism sector, given the current situation?

- This is one of the priorities for this year. Four years ago, I was already actively working on this issue, and, finally, when improvements were already expected, the COVID-19 pandemic broke out, and all work was stopped.

But already at the end of last year, representatives of the Croatian Tourist Board visited Baku and held several meetings to prepare a cooperation plan for this year.

I hope that we will finally resume cooperation on tourism this year, which also means organizing direct charter flights this summer to various parts of Croatia. Then the tourist flow between our countries will be much greater than now.

But that's one part of the question. Another concerns the fact that cooperation between Azerbaijan and Croatia in the field of tourism is also possible in the field of transfer of know-how and Croatian experience.

As you know, Croatia is a famous tourist destination with about 20 million tourists visiting the country every year. I know that Azerbaijan also seeks to develop tourism, especially in the liberated territories. Therefore, this sector can become one of the areas that has the potential for cooperation and an important direction among the tasks of the intergovernmental commission.