Azerbaijan, Baku, 13 May / corr. Trend I. Alizade/ Russia plans to increase commodity turnover with Azerbaijan by $4bln by 2010. "There are real possibilities to do it," Boris Grizlov, the chairman of the Lower Chamber of Russia Parliament said during his meeting with Ogtay Asadov, the chairman of the Azerbaijani parliament on 13 May.
Grizlov said that at present, the commodity turnover between Azerbaijan and Russia amounts to $1.5bln. This figure is scheduled to be raised up to $2bln by the end of the year.
Grizlov's visit to Azerbaijan began on 13 May with visiting the memorial of the Azerbaijani former president Heydar Aliyev in the Honorary Cemetery and visiting Martyr's Lane.
"There is a need to pass a Bill on Mutual Protection of Investments in order to protect mutual investments of Azerbaijani and Russian businessmen," Grizlov added.
According to Grizlov, it is important to establish international consortium to construct Moscow-Baku-Tehran railway. " Russia supports the construction of this railway and establishment of the international consortium for this purpose," the representative of the State Duma ( Russia parliament) said.
According to Grizlov, the Russian company Rusal plans to construct a plant in Azerbaijan producing aluminum.
There are a total of 391 Russian companies operating in Azerbaijan. Some 174 of them are joint Azerbaijan-Russian ventures, 91 - totally owned by the Russian and 124 of them being branches and representations.
Grizlov is expected to meet with the Premier Artur Rasizade and President Ilham Aliyev.
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