Azerbaijan has favorable conditions to develop tourism and agriculture: Anglo-Azeri Society head

Azerbaijan’s geography and climate provide favorable conditions for the development of tourism and agriculture, Lord Fraser, chairman of Anglo-Azeri Society, said at the 1st Azerbaijan International Investment Summit in London.

According to him, during his visits to Azerbaijan he witnessed that local people show great interest in the development of business and farming.

He added that the country has literate workforce and rich land resources.

"Caucasus Mountains lying in Azerbaijan surpass even mountains of Austria and Switzerland. Here you can build lucrative tourist complexes," he added.

Ilham Guliyev, Azerbaijan Deputy Minister of Agriculture, also delivered a speech at the summit, speaking about the agricultural sector reforms and prospects for cooperation.

He noted that 39 percent of the workforce is currently concentrated in the agricultural sector, and 99.8 percent of production is contributed by the private sector.

According to him, there has been a significant increase in production in recent years and the annual grain production reached 3 million tons, including wheat of 2.2 million tons this year.

For the first time, Azerbaijan was able to meet the demand for these products through domestic production in 2009, he added.

Deputy Minister of Transport Musa Panahov talked about local and international projects in the transport sector, the preparation of new projects and prospects for cooperation.

According to him, it is planned to build 75 road tunnels and road bridges and overpasses, to reconstruct railways, to build new highway and other infrastructure facilities in Baku in the next 5 years.

Deputy Minister of Communications and Information Technologies Elmir Valizade spoke about the role of the ICT sector in GDP, and increase in the range and scope of services.

He also briefed the participants of Azerbaijan-initiated Trans-Eurasian Information Superhighway Project, the first satellite project and other activities.

He said Azerbaijan offers many ICT projects to foreign investors.

Officer of Azerbaijan’s Ministry of Culture and Tourism Firuddin Gurbanov gave information about the tourism potential of the country, adding that the number of tourists arrivals increased by 87 percent from 1.014 million people in 2003 to 1.898 million in 2008.

"Azerbaijan is most visited by tourists from Russia, Georgia, Iran, Turkey, UK, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, United States, Germany and China."

According to him, construction of hotels and inns increased from 238 in 2003 to 320 in 2007 and 370 in 2008.

On the second day of the summit, Nakhchivan AR Minister of Economic Development Famil Seyidov and experts of Baker & McKenzie and Salans also delivered reports.

/APA/