Azerbaijan, Baku / corr Trend I.Khalilova / The South Korean holding company STX is about to conclude a feasibility study of the construction of a ship-building factory in Azerbaijan and will hold its presentation in the next two months, Heydar Babayev, the Azerbaijani Minister for Economic Development said on 24 September.
The factory will be built in Alat, like the new international trade sea port.
"We appealed the Korean embassy in Azerbaijan today [24 September] to intensify the process, because the presentation of the port was held in September. So, it will be good to clarify the situation with the ship-building plant," the minister added.
At the same time, it is not right to put pressures on the development of the feasibility study, because the results represent the grounds for future operations.
A memorandum on the joint financing of the project was signed between the Azerbaijani Investment Company and STX in Seoul on 24 April 2007. The Korean holding will be the main shareholder and the Azerbaijani Investment Company plans to acquire 25% of the shares.
A ship-building facility will be complementary to the project on the construction of a new oil terminal and port in the Garadag region of Azerbaijan. Kazakhstan oil will be transported through this terminal via the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline to Europe.
Kazakh tankers can be repaired at the ship-building plant in Azerbaijan like other vessels from the Caspian region. There are no other enterprises similar to this one in the country. Orders for the construction will be accepted from here and abroad.