Foreign investments in Azerbaijan up

By Vusala Abbasova - AzerNews 

Foreign investments in Azerbaijan's fixed capital increased by 46.3 percent in January-June 2015, according to a report by the Azerbaijani State Statistics Committee.

Under the report covering a period of six months, the total volume of foreign investments made in Azerbaijan's fixed capital amounted to 3.2 billion manats(approximately $3.05 billion).

The largest foreign investments made in the country's economy since the beginning of this year were made in March, when the total amount of investments reached 653.4 million manats. In turn, the lowest amount for investments was made in February, when totals 387.7 million manats(approximately $369.4 million).

More than 2.85 million manats (over 88.5 percent) of investments made in county's fixed capital by the foreign countries and international organizations over the first half of this year belonged to investors from the UK, Norway, Russia, Iran, Sweden, USA, Turkey, and Japan.

The UK topped the list of foreign investment in Azerbaijan, as its share reached 1.03 billion manats(approximately $980 million), amounting to 32 percent of total investment in the reported period.

During to the first half of the year, Turkey’s investments in the Azerbaijani economy amounted to 456.57 million manats (approximately 14.2 percent), Norway stood at 387.15 million manats (12 percent), Russia and Iran both at 221.9 million manats (6.9 percent), Sweden at 188.09 million (5.8 percent), the USA at 179.68 million manats (5.6 percent), and Japan at 163.23 million manats (5.1 percent).

Attracting foreign investment, advanced technology, managing experience from abroad, and promoting its non-oil sector are the most important parts of the strategy of economical development determined by the Azerbaijan government.

The political stability and economical development in the country have increased the interest of foreign states in long-term investing in the country.

Azerbaijan has achieved most of its goals in this field and successfully attracted $83.8 billion worth foreign investment from 1995 to.

Political and macroeconomic stability, the protection of investors' rights, a favorable geographical location, rich natural resources, and a highly skilled workforce have turned Azerbaijan into one of the most attractive countries for foreign investment.

Some $10.5 billion worth of foreign investment was injected into Azerbaijan's economy last year, of which over half was directed to non-oil sectors.

Azerbaijan has set a goal to minimize the dependence of the national economy on oil and to double the country's GDP by developing non-oil sectors by 2020.