Baku, Azerbaijan, March 12
By Matanat Nasibova - Trend:
Azerbaijan and Russia are strategic partners and are actively building up bilateral cooperation, including trade and economic one, Azerbaijan’s Economy Minister Shahin Mustafayev said.
He was speaking at a business seminar “Azerbaijan on the way to the implementation of investment projects: the possibilities of Gazprombank”, Trend reports March 12.
He said that so far Russia has invested about $4.2 billion in Azerbaijan’s economy, and Azerbaijan has invested over $1 billion in Russia’s economy. The trade turnover between the two countries for the year increased by 20 percent, reaching $2.55 billion, he added.
“A whole range of measures is being taken to build up bilateral cooperation, financial institutions and financial market play a special role in this,” he said. “We have quite a good cooperation in the investment sphere. About 700 companies with Russian capital operate in Azerbaijan, and they are involved in many areas of the country’s economy.”
Mustafayev noted the role of Russia’s Gazprombank, which is actively involved in the implementation of industrial projects in Azerbaijan. Among these projects, he mentioned the construction project of the SOCAR Polymer plant.
“The plant is already operating and offers its products not only in the domestic market of Azerbaijan, but also successfully exports it,” the economy minister added.
He said that the tendency of expansion of economic interaction meets the growing interests of the business circles of the two countries. Russia-Azerbaijan and Azerbaijan-Russia business councils are particularly active in this direction, he noted.