Azerbaijan Minister of Economic Development, Heydar Babayev, received the Secretary General of the Economic Co-operation Organization (ECO), Anwar Khurshud, who is on visit to Azerbaijan.
Serious progresses have been achieved in Azerbaijan as a result of the reforms carried out in the country, Trend reports with reference to the statement of the Ministry of Economic Development of Azerbaijan. Together with the oil and gas sector, which is the locomotive of the economy of the country, the priority directions are strengthening non-oil sector. Increasing the attention to the entrepreneurship caused the growth of the share of the private sector in the GDP up to 81%.
In addition, the Minister informed the guest on the position of Azerbaijan in realizing a number of large-scale regional projects such as construction of Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline, Baku-Tbilisi-Arzurum gas pipe, Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway project. According to Heydar Babayev, creating Azerbaijan Investment Company will be significant for realization of the large-scale projects in non-oil sector and the participation opportunities of the Company in various projects are considered.
In addition, Azerbaijan attaches great importance to the co-operation with international economic organizations, including ECO, the Minister said. Khurshud expressed readiness to provide all kinds of assistance in expanding the relations between ECO and Azerbaijan.
Azerbaijan has been the member of ECO since 1992 and co-operates with it within agreements on protecting and supporting investments and on co-operation in the sphere of trade and transit transportations.