Azerbaijan Provides Many Business Opportunities for Oklahoma Business
Oklahoma National Guard State Partnership Program sponsored a first ever Oklahoma Trade Mission to Azerbaijan with hopes to find how Oklahoma resources and businesses might be able to help.
Oklahoma City (PRWEB) December 19, 2005 -- A delegation of Oklahoma's business and government leaders recently returned from a mission in Southwestern Asia as part of the National Guard State Partnership Program. The 5-day mission (September 11-16) was designed to offer guidance and support, and strengthen political, military, environmental and socio-economic ties between the United States and war-torn, eco-challenged Azerbaijan, located between Iran and Russia.
Oklahoma delegates including: David Schneider, coordinator of market intelligence and special assignments for the Oklahoma Department of Commerce; Robert Wegener, deputy to Oklahoma Secretary of Energy; Glen Schickedanz, marketing development coordinator for the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture, Food, and Forestry; and Montgomery Bruner, Ph.D., an environmental scientist for Environmental Management Services, Inc., met with Azerbaijani business leaders and government officials, as well as U.S. Ambassadors and Embassy officers to discuss in-depth a variety of issues impacting the stability of the region, as well as international business and trade development.
“This was the first civilian delegation from Oklahoma to go into the region to meet with Azerbaijani officials,” said Dr. Bruner, an environmental and biological scientist based in Stillwater. “Our goal was to discover what their needs are and identify within Oklahoma the resources we have to satisfy those needs. We gathered a lot of useful information that will eventually provide Oklahoma companies some unique opportunities to get involved.”
“Dr. Bruner was able to bring back information regarding opportunities in not only the environmental and energy sectors but business ventures as well,” said Mark Stansberry, Chairman of The GTD Group, a consulting firm specializing in international trade, government relations, and energy and environmental issues. Stansberry was a member of the first American/Canadian oil and gas delegation to visit the Dagestan/Caspian Sea region of Russia in 1992, and helped coordinate September's mission.
The 1992 delegation met with the Russian Energy Ministry in Moscow and as a follow-up meeting in 1993, Stansberry along with three others met with then Russia's Energy Minister Yuri Sharftanik in Washington, D.C. at the Russian Embassy to propose working with Russian counterparts.
“There were an estimated 30,000 to 35,000 existing shut-in wells in Russia at that time.” Stansberry said. “The Russian government agreed that independents could assist in this effort.”
About the National Guard State Partnership Program:
The National Guard State Partnership Program links U.S. states with partner countries' defense ministries and other government agencies for the purpose of improving bilateral relations. Following dramatic political, socio-economic and military changes after the collapse of the Soviet Union , the concept of providing assistance through cooperation to the emerging democracies was created.
Originally implemented in 1993, the program strives to accomplish the following:
| | - Assist in the development of democratic institutions
- Foster open market economies to help bring stability
- Project and represent U.S. humanitarian values
- Demonstrate military support to civilian authority
- Demonstrate military subordination to civilian authority
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About Azerbaijan
Located in Southwestern Asia (bordering the Caspian Sea between Iran and Russia ), this nation with a Turkic and majority-Muslim population regained its independence after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.
Azerbaijan , slightly smaller than Maine in size with a population of about 8 million, is considered to be the ecologically most devastated area in the world because of severe pollution resulting from oil spills, the use of DDT as a pesticide, and toxic defoliants used in the production of cotton.
Contact : Montgomery Bruner
405.747.9687
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