Azerbaijan became a member of the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO) in 1993. The organisation has so far implemented various projects in Azerbaijan in a number of areas such as industrial energy efficiency, development of national industrial statistics database, support for SMEs, environmental improvements, etc.
The Government of Azerbaijan and UNIDO signed a Memorandum of Cooperation (MoC) on industrial development in 2000, and a framework co-operation programme for 2005-2010 in 2005.
In July 2010, Director-General of the Organisation, Dr Kandeh Yumkella, visited Azerbaijan and held high-level meetings to discuss opportunities for expanding ties.
A regional conference on industrial parks was organised by UNIDO in Azerbaijan on 17-18 April 2012. As a result of the work to be done in Azerbaijan within the framework of the Industrial Year, an international conference on “Main trends of industrial policy, modern approaches and practices in the 21st century” was organised in Baku on 26-27 November 2014 with the close participation of UNIDO. As part of the event, a Framework Programme on Cooperation between Azerbaijan and UNIDO for 2014-2018 was signed. At present, relevant work is underway to sign the next framework programme for 2021-2025.