Heydar Babayev, the Azerbaijan Minister for Economic Development, said on 1 February 2007 that a report will be developed for further presentation French cement manufacturer вЂ" Lafarge as a result of examination held by the Company specialists, Trend reports.
The company held technical examination in the places where fields for raw materials exist. The appearance of Lafarge in Azerbaijan is not directed against Holcim Group, or any investment company. Azerbaijan, as well as the region in whole has a great demand in cement. Moreover, Azerbaijan has necessary fields, he said.
The Ministry of Economic Development on behalf of the Azerbaijan Government is always ready to render assistance to all companies interested in investing in the non-oil sector of the country, the Minister said.
The Government of Azerbaijan, AIC and Lafarge signed a trilateral Memorandum of Intention on investing in cement production in Azerbaijan. The second memorandum between the Company and the Azerbaijan Ministry of Economic Development was concluded this week to confirm the Government Intention. The Ministry of Economic Development acted as a security of the project on construction of a cement plant. The project budget for the cement plant is $110-120mln with a capacity of 1-1.25mln tons. The location of the plant will depend on the feasibility study.