Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 21
By Abbas Akhundov - Trend:
Azerbaijan and Turkey are examining opportunities to increase mutual trade turnover, the Azerbaijani Ministry of Economy and Industry told Trend on Thursday.
"The rapid development of the economy, observed over the last 10 years in Azerbaijan and Turkey, had a positive impact on the development of bilateral economic relations between the two countries," the ministry said. "The trade turnover between Azerbaijan and Turkey, which are the closest between countries worldwide, continued growing recently."
According to the ministry, the bilateral trade turnover increased by 20.6 percent in 2012 and by 2.7 percent within nine months of the year.
"As one of Azerbaijan's main trade partners, Turkey is the first in the list of exporting countries to Azerbaijan, as well as the third in the list of importers of Azerbaijani non-oil products," the ministry said. "It should be stressed that there is great potential for expanding trade relations with Turkey. From this point of view, a working group was established to examine new opportunities."
Moreover, the countries are increasing their mutual investments.
"The world experience shows that the attractiveness of investing in any country is characterized by the availability of any legal regime in this country and lasting economic development and an investment volume," the ministry added. "Azerbaijan and Turkey have recently managed to attract big foreign investments. However, the countries are increasing mutual investments. So, Turkey ranks first among the investors in the Azerbaijani non-oil sector with investments worth $1.5 billion. Turkish investments in Azerbaijan's capital asset increased by 11 percent - to $2.44 billion compared to late 2012. Moreover, Turkey ranks first among the countries where Azerbaijan is making investments. Azerbaijan's investments to Turkey increased by 11 percent - up to $5 billion during the last year. Only SOCAR plans to invest $17 billion to Turkey until 2018."
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev visited Turkey on November 12-13. It was the Azerbaijani president's first official foreign visit after his re-election.