Speech by Heydar Aliyev, the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan at the Ceremony of signing of ‎Contract on Mutual Protection of Capital Investment between Governments of Azerbaijan and the ‎United States of America, after meeting with James Harman, President of the US Export-Import ‎Bank - Washington, Blair House, July 31, 1997‎

I would like to express my gratitude to you and US Export-Import Bank for signing this contract. I think that our cooperation will be successful furthermore, as it was so far.

Having organized its economy on the basis of principles of market economy, Azerbaijan has created favorable conditions for attracting foreign investments, after liberalization of the trade and export operations and carrying out of wide-scale privatization Azerbaijan feels increasing necessity of cooperation with major financial centers of the world, including the United States of America and its Export-Import Bank.

The contract signed today will enable us to conduct these processes more rapidly.

I wish successes to our cooperation with Export-Import Bank and I state that Azerbaijan will remain faithful to this Contract and will fulfill the implied duties. Thank you.

I accept your gift with pleasure. Thank you.