Stef Goris: Belgian companies becoming increasingly interested in Middle Corridor - INTERVIEW

Belgium shows great interest in developing bilateral cooperation with Azerbaijan in various sectors of the economy. To promote this goal, the Belgian-Azerbaijani Chamber of Commerce was established at the end of last year, which has achieved certain results in a short period of activity. In September, members of the chamber made another visit to Baku. Belgazercom Chairman Stef Goris spoke about the results of the mission and the immediate plans of Belgazercom in an interview with Report.

  - What agreements have been reached within the framework of this mission?

 - In February, the Belgazercom (the chamber of commerce for Belgium and Azerbaijan) organized the first trade mission to Baku, mainly to discuss how to proceed and to mull possibilities with the official agencies and administrations, and it was quite successful. But this mission was particularly focusing on B2B meetings and matchmaking, which means that we were looking for real results on the field, on site, to see the handshake between Belgian and Azerbaijani business leaders. And I can say, as the chairman of the Chamber of Commerce, I'm particularly proud that it resulted in five formal agreements. So first of all, we have a Belgian company active in cold galvanisation - a company called Zingametall (Zinga), and the CEO, Bruno Saverys, was among our members of the delegation. He was looking in particular for a distributor for his product in Baku, Azerbaijan. He is already active in 120 countries worldwide, and not in Azerbaijan, which is, of course, unforgivable. So we took him here, and we are already prepared. We have already identified possible companies in Azerbaijan suitable for the purpose that we have. So in this case, we could identify our member, Azerbaijani Polad Texno, and the current general manager who accepted and who was very happy to become the distributor for Zinga, and they already made an agreement, it's a formal agreement. Now, lawyers are, of course, making the details. They both confirmed that it is official - Polad Texno will become the distributor. 

In addition, we organized meetings with end users. In particular, at the head office of SOCAR, where after our presentation the purchasing committee proposed to submit a pilot project with Zinga for consideration. Similar negotiations took place with Baku Steel Company, as well as with a number of other enterprises. It is important to note here that the initiative came from us, but Azerbaijani companies showed great interest. Then the CEO of Zinga proposed to conduct a pilot project: to provide materials and specialists who would demonstrate the technology on site. Companies will be able to test the product, and only then make a decision. We are very pleased that large Azerbaijani companies have agreed to implement pilot projects.

- How would you describe the current state of economic relations between Azerbaijan and Belgium?

- Well, it is the assessment not only by me but also by our authorities that we are a bit stepping behind with the economic relationship between the two countries. And there was not enough enthusiasm. There was no real boost. Nobody was really busy with this. Since that, we started up the Belgian-Azerbaijani Chamber of Commerce, only nine months ago, in that short lapse of time, we have already achieved results in the field. So this is only a first step because we plan to come back in the spring. We will show and present the outcome of today's mission to other Belgian businesses to convince them that we are really going for real results in the field. And I hope that next time, even more companies will join us.

Azerbaijani company Fors LLC reached an agreement with Umicore. Umicore is a giant in recycling and in rare metals. It's not easy to become its client, but through the mediation of the chamber, we were successful in getting the Azerbaijani company Fors LLC to become the client of Umicore. And now they are already active in collaboration because it was already the result after the last mission.

We have, of course, the logistics sector, many logistical companies in Belgium are looking to the east with the problems in the maritime, transport, with the problems in the sea, the Red sea, the security, and the insurance was getting more expensive. There is more interest in the Middle Road corridor. Belgian companies are also looking to this. One big Belgian logistics company, Move Intermodal, was here to look for a partner. It didn't find one, it found two partners. One that's more specifically in trains - Soyuz Kontakt, and the other one more specifically on the road - Hellmann Worldwide Logistics. So far, only a letter of intent has been signed, since it is impossible to prepare a full-fledged joint venture agreement in two days. But cooperation has already begun to develop.

 - What future plans do you have?

 - Well, now we go back home to Belgium, tomorrow we fly back. We have a lot of homework to do, because we also understand from several Azerbaijani companies, they are also looking for particular solutions and industrial solutions. But we took a note, and I'm pretty sure that for several of them, maybe we can bring solutions. This is what we will now try to do. When I'm back in Belgium, I will contact those Belgian companies, inform them about the requests by Azerbaijani companies, and try to identify exactly what would be the best solution, and to be, as usual, the chamber intermediary between Belgian and Azerbaijani companies to fix this solution and to propose it in detail. Then, when we come back in the spring, we hope to also conclude these solutions. But I can assure you, there were a lot of requests. I have a lot of homework to do. We don't mind. That's what we are here for. But after this first success, we want to continue and even step up higher.

 - Are there any requests from Azerbaijani companies to participate in the activities of the Chamber?

- At the moment, there are six-seven companies (Azerbaijani - ed.) that are members of the Chamber. However, after the meetings within the mission, I heard from a number of companies that they were ready to join the Chamber. At the end of the negotiations, I asked the question: "Would you like to become members of the Chamber?" - and I received positive answers. Now we should list these companies, send them official invitations, and they will join us. So their number will grow.

- How do you see the role of the chamber in expanding relations between Belgium and Azerbaijan?

- In my opinion, bilateral relations can cover various areas - politics, culture, sports, and, of course, economics. At the same time, economic cooperation is of particular importance because it unites people in the process of creating new added value that works for both economies. Economic growth is the basis for raising the standard of living. New jobs, better socio-economic standards, increased prosperity - all this is possible thanks to the development of bilateral economic ties. That is why we pay such serious attention to this area and work with full dedication.