The Minister of State for Commerce, Shri Jairam Ramesh is leading a multi-sectoral Indian delegation to Azerbaijan and Uzbekistan on 10-16 April 2007 to boost bilateral economic relationships covering both investment and trade.

In Baku, Shri Ramesh will sign the first-ever agreement with Azerbaijan for establishing the India-Azerbaijan Intergovernmental Commission on Trade, Economic, Scientific and Technological Cooperation. Along with the Managing Director of ONGC Videsh, he will also pursue India's interests for oil and gas exploration in Azerbaijan. ONGC Videsh has identified some promising prospects which it would like to develop, Azerbaijan having re-emerged as a major oil-rich country with the commissioning of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline that links Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey and is the world's second longest oil pipeline connecting rich Caspian Sea oil reserves with the Mediterranean Sea.

Azerbaijan also having vast resources of minerals and metals, senior officials from MMTC and the National Mineral Development Corporation(NMDC) are accompanying Shri Jairam Ramesh, to explore the possibilities of entering into a Memorandum of Understanding for cooperation in the mineral sector with the Azerbaijan Government. BHEL has executed a major project for supply and installation of power generators. Indian pharmaceutical companies are also building their presence in Azerbaijan. The Minister of State's visit is expected to provide a fillip to these efforts.

In Tashkent, Shri Ramesh will chair the Seventh Session of the India-Uzbekistan Intergovernmental Commission. Accompanied by senior officials of GAIL, Ministry of Petroleum & National Gas, he will pursue with the Uzbek government the projects identified by GAIL for investment in Uzbekistan in petrochemicals, LPG and city gas distribution. In addition, GAIL has identified 4 natural gas exploration and production blocks as prospective ones in Uzbekistan on which it would like to move forward, Uzbekistan being one of the top natural gas producing countries in the world. ONGC Videsh is also interested in investing in gas fields in Uzbekistan.

In addition, Shri Ramesh will review the status of implementation of the MOU signed in November 2006 between the Uzbekistan government and The Cotton Textiles Export Promotion Council of India (TEXPROCIL) for enhancing cooperation in the cotton textile sector. The public sector State Trading Corporation is also exploring a US million investment in Uzbekistan for cottonseed processing. An Indian private company Spentex has already acquired two cotton spinning factories in Uzbekistan investing close to US million.

Accompanied by senior officials of MMTC and the National Mineral Development Corporation (NMDC), Shri Ramesh will also explore opportunities of intensified cooperation in gold, Uzbekistan having the 4th largest gold reserves in the world and India now being the world's largest importer of gold( 700-800 tonnes per year).

For both Azerbaijan and Uzbekistan, Shri Ramesh is also accompanied by senior officials of the Department of Commerce, Ministry of External Affairs, Culture, Petroleum and Natural Gas and Science and Technology, apart from representatives of RITES, and business delegations from FICCI, CII and the Indo-CIS Chamber of Commerce in case of Uzbekistan. The Indo-CIS Chamber is organizing a substantive buyer-seller meet in Tashkent on 13 April 2007 and RITES has made proposals for modernizing and expanding Uzbekistan's railway network.

On another plane, both Azerbaijan and Uzbekistan are keen on enhancing collaboration with India in the field of education and culture. Keeping in view her tremendous popularity and appeal in both countries on account of her films like "Seeta Aur Geeta" and "Sholay", Shri Jairam Ramesh extended an invitation to Smt. Hema Malini, MP to also join the delegation. But the noted film and dance artiste had to decline because of her election campaign commitments in UP. She has however recorded special messages to the people of Azerbaijan and Uzbekistan which Shri Jairam Ramesh will hand over to his counterparts.

Azerbaijan and Uzbekistan are countries with which India has had long and deep historical and cultural ties extending over millennia. The historic Silk Route connected the three countries and apart from Islam, both Zoroastrianism and Buddhism are common threads. Over the past few years, India has been taking determined steps to build a close economic relationship as well. The Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh had visited Uzbekistan in April 2006 and Shri Mani Shankar Aiyar had visited Azerbaijan in June 2005.