TODAY.AZ / Politics

Russia determines investment co-op priorities with Azerbaijan

22 September 2015 [11:14] - TODAY.AZ
Taking into account the infrastructure projects being implemented and to be implemented by Azerbaijan in the near future, a petrochemical segment will start developing actively in the investment cooperation of Azerbaijani and Russian companies, Sergey Tsyb, Russian Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade, told Trend.

Tsyb said that this segment will have a priority in this cooperation.

"The projects being implemented by Azerbaijan are the certain priorities for Russian machine builders in the field of oil and gas equipment production,” he said.

“Among these projects are SOCAR Polimer project [construction of plants for the polyethylene and polypropylene production], the reconstruction and reorganization of the Heydar Aliyev oil refinery and commissioning of a new complex for the methanol production.”

“All these projects are also certain additional incentives and challenges for Russian companies that will be able to cooperate with Azerbaijani counterparts as part of the implementation of these projects,” he said. “I think that this area will be a priority."

Tsyb said that Russian companies have no problems with entering the market of Azerbaijan.

He said it is needed to regulate this area so that it would be possible to develop the domestic production in Azerbaijan involving foreign investments, including the Russian ones.

Tsyb added that when such decisions are made, as a rule, laws get improved not only for those investments’ protection, but also for them to be comfortable for any investor in terms of making investments.

He also said it is clear on the other hand that this regulation should at most remove the remaining barriers that hamper the investors’ decision-making.

“However, these barriers differ in different segments and they are barriers in name only,” said Tsyb.

“For instance, a barrier could be posed by the limits of Azerbaijan’s internal market in terms of a local product that can be produced here,” he said. “And this market’s capacity doesn’t allow investors to minimize the risks associated with certain consumption guarantees for the products the investors will manufacture.”

Therefore, as Tsyb said, the regulation should be flexible for this type of investments so that investors feel comfortable making decisions on certain investment issues in relation to Azerbaijan.

He noted that first of all, the dynamic growth of the bilateral trade turnover proves the strengthening of economic relations between Russia and Azerbaijan.

The deputy minister added that there is no certain target volume for trade turnover, but its growth at any rate is a positive factor both for Azerbaijan and Russia.

“But we try to find new spheres and segments which could increase the growth dynamics of the trade turnover,” said Tsyb, adding that the pharmaceutical industry and production of medical products is one of such areas.

“Presidents of our countries have also repeatedly talked about that and we immediately started this work,” the deputy minister said.

Tsyb said he believes there are all prerequisites to increase the export potential of Russia and to fulfill the task set by the leaders and governments of the two countries. He added that this task is to organize joint ventures or own complexes for producing medicines and medical products on Azerbaijan’s territory.

According to the Azerbaijani State Customs Committee, the trade turnover between Azerbaijan and Russia amounted to $ 1.1 billion in January-July 2015, which is 1.85 percent more than in the same period of 2014. The imports from Russia to Azerbaijan increased by 24.5 percent and amounted to 868.79 million manat.

Russia has invested more than $ 1.8 billion in Azerbaijan's economy. Azerbaijan has invested over $1 billion of investments in the Russian economy.

More than 600 companies with Russian capital currently operate in Azerbaijan. Of these, about 200 companies are with 100 percent Russian capital and 300 ones are in the form of a joint venture (JV). Gazprom, LUKOIL, KAMAZ and VTB Bank are among the major Russian manufacturers and companies.

/By Trend/
URL: http://www.today.az/news/politics/143864.html

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