Within the framework of the 79th session of the UN General Assembly and Climate Week in New York, a bilateral meeting was held between Mukhtar Babayev, the Minister of Ecology and Natural Resources of the Republic of Azerbaijan, the President-designate of COP29 and the Secretary General of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, Rebekah Greenspan.
The US bureau of “Report” reports that at the meeting the parties exchanged views on the COP29 Baku Initiative on Climate Finance, Investment and Trade (BICFIT).
In the debates it was highlighted that the Conference on Trade and Development represented in the corresponding Global Working Group created by the UN for COP29 and the Development Program of the international organization play a coordinating role for the UN in the BICFIT initiative presented by Azerbaijan. Furthermore, the COP29 Presidency is cooperating closely with the World Trade Organization, the International Trade Center and other international partners on this initiative.
M. Babayev informed R. Grinspan that Azerbaijan will organize for the first time during its COP29 presidency a thematic day on climate finance, investment and trade. The minister said that the Trade and Investment House will be organized by the Azerbaijan Export and Investment Promotion Fund (AZPROMO), which is under the Ministry of Economy of Azerbaijan, and in cooperation with partners such as the WTO and the Trade and Investment Organization. United Nations Development. , the International Trade Center and the International Chamber of Commerce.
Speaking about the importance of the new innovative BICFIT initiative proposed by the COP29 Presidency, M. Babayev highlighted that the main objective of this initiative is to ensure global synergy by bringing together the issues of climate finance, investment, trade and sustainable development. The initiative to create free green economic zones around the world could be one of the first products of BICFIT and a legacy of COP29. He noted that the COP29 Presidency consults widely with the parties on all initiatives, a special session on the BICFIT initiative was organized on September 13, 2024 in Geneva, Switzerland within the Global Public Forum of the World Trade Organization with the participation of countries and all other partners.
R. Greenspan, in turn, thanked the government of Azerbaijan for the first time during COP29 for organizing the day of finance, investment and trade as a unique thematic day and for the support provided to the organization of the House of Commerce and Investment. He praised the BICFIT initiative presented by Azerbaijan and spoke about the great prospects of this initiative, which aims to strengthen the connection between the issues of climate finance, investment, trade and development, and the World Investment Forum, which is organized every two years by the organization led by the dialogue component of BICFIT highlighted that it welcomed the proposal of the COP29 Presidency to be part of it.
At the end of the meeting, the parties signed the corresponding letter of intent to cooperate in the development of the BICFIT initiative in close collaboration with other partners.
