OREANDA-NEWS. April 15, 2010. The St Petersburg government has come forward with a range of initiatives to foster relationships with Azerbaijan.

Sergey Naumenko, the head of the Department for CIS & Baltic Countries of the St Petersburg Committee for Foreign Relations, says that perspective directions for further collaboration between St Petersburg and Azerbaijan are: establishment of the bilateral intergovernmental commission, further work on co-operation of entrepreneurs in industrial sector, creation of information & business centre.

“The global economic crisis has had impact on the volume of trade turnover between Azerbaijan and St Petersburg. Decline of mutual trade turnover following 2009 reached 12%,” Naumenko said.

Meanwhile, the Azerbaijani government is beginning preparation for holding the first session of the intergovernmental commission on co-operation between Azerbaijan and Russia’s St Petersburg in economic and humanitarian areas. The Commission’s membership on behalf of Azerbaijan was endorsed 15 January 2010.

The Azerbaijani party wants to conduct Commission’s first session in Baku and ensure participation of St Petersburg governor Valentina Matvienko in it. May or autumn of 2010 were brought as two convenient “windows” for session holding.

Under the decree of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, Yagub Eyubov, the first deputy of Azerbaijani prime minister, heads Commission’s national staff.

The Commission also composes industry & energy minister Natig Aliyev; chair of the State Committee for Tow-Planning & Architecture Abbas Alaskarov; the deputy ministers for foreign affairs Khalaf Khalafov, for transport Musa Panakhov, for economic development Niazi Safarov, for culture & tourism  Sevda Mammadaliyeva, for education Elmar Gasimov, for health Elsever Aghayev, for youth & sports Intigam Babayev; first vice president of National Academy of Sciences Arif Gashimov; head of Cabinet Ministers’ Department of Economic Relations with CIS Countries Kamal Ismailzadeh; and Azerbaijan’s consul general in St Petersburg Gudsi Osmanov.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan was commissioned to send a notification about intergovernmental commission’s membership on behalf of Azerbaijan.