The Ministry of Commerce and Ministry of Defence Production has developed a joint action plan to enhance Pakistan’s exports to Azerbaijan up to $500 million in the next five years.An official in the Ministry of Commerce shared that following Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s visit to Azerbaijan last month, an Inter-Ministerial Working Group meeting took the decision to enhance exports to Azerbaijan to $500 million from the existing value of $60 million.The meeting was co-chaired by Commerce Minister Khurram Dastgir and Minister for Defence Production Rana Tanveer. The meeting decided to take all possible steps to expand and diversify goods and services exported to the Central Asian country in the coming years, where a significant potential exists to ship Pakistani commodities.Earlier, after his visit to Azerbaijan, the prime minister had constituted a committee, headed by Minister for Commerce, and included Secretaries Ministries of Commerce, Defence Production, Industries and Production, Information Technology and Telecommunication, National Food Security and Research and Foreign Affairs as its members for enhancing trade and economic relations with Azerbaijan.The secretary commerce has been nominated as the focal person for trade and economic relations and the committee was entrusted with the responsibility of finalising the way forward.It was also decided during the meeting that under the action plan the commerce minister will lead a delegation to Azerbaijan later this month, which would comprise of prominent businessmen from export-oriented sectors of Pakistan.On the side-lines of the visit, a meeting of Pakistan-Azerbaijan Joint Business Council will also be held in Baku for which the Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry has already finalised members of the JBC from Pakistan’s side.The plan also includes holding trade exhibitions and restoring trade connectivity between the two countries. After soliciting input from all the relevant ministries, the working group decided to submit the recommendations of the forum to the PM Office within two weeks.During the meeting, Dastgir said that Azerbaijan had shown particular interest to import pharmaceuticals and experience-sharing in textile value addition from Pakistan as part of the enhanced cooperation plan.“We have prepared a Five Years Trade Cooperation Plan to increase bilateral trade to $500 million and for diversification of export sectors,” he said.“The plan envisages enhanced market access to Azerbaijan through preferential trading arrangement, which subsequently will be upgraded into a free trade agreement with mutual consent,” Dastgir added.Tanveer said that Azerbaijan is more inclined towards Pakistan to import defence-related products, technology and technical training.It is pertinent to mention that Pakistan’s total exports to Azerbaijan were $60 million by the year 2015-16, dominated by a single product: rice.However, Pakistan’s imports from Azerbaijan for the same year were only $0.031 million.Published in The Express Tribune, November 3, 2016.Like Business on Facebook , follow @TribuneBiz on Twitter to stay informed and join in the conversation.