Azerbaijan, Baku / corr I.Khalilova / Absence of legal basis on investment cooperation between Azerbaijan and Russia will weaken development of huge economic projects, requiring big investments, Yuriy Shedrin, Russia's Representative for Commerce in Azerbaijan, said on 24 August.
"Until the adoption of an Agreement on enhancing and protection of mutual investments it will be difficult to guarantee inflow of big investments from Russia, Shedrin said. It is impossible without serious legal guarantees."
The governments of the two countries cannot reach any compromise over the draft intergovernmental agreement on only one issue of temporary of temporary nature. Azerbaijan offers to apply it on the entire history of cooperation between Azerbaijan and Russia, whereas Russia insists on covering the period beginning from 1992, or since the independence.
The Governments are currently in talks and negotiations over big investments are also delayed. For instance, there is a project in the construction of an aluminum plant in Azerbaijan with the budget of $1bln.
Since the beginning of the year Russian investments in the Azerbaijani economy has amounted to approximately $900,000. Taking into consideration that the same amount has been in the reverse direction, the Commerce Representative estimates the investment relations at zero.