Azernews.Az

By Mirsaid Ibrahimzade

Azerbaijan and Russia have good prospects of cooperation in many areas of the economy, especially in tourism sphere. The both countries’ companies are involved in construction of different tourism facilities which will undoubtedly give impetus to growth of the tourists flow.

Olga Ruhullaeva, Russia’s Deputy Minister for Northern Caucasus Affairs, told local media that Azerbaijani entrepreneurs will complete the construction of two resort complexes in the Stavropol Krai (North Caucasian Federal District) by 2021.

Ruhullaeva said that with the participation of Azerbaijani investors, the construction of the “Istochnik Zheleznovodsk” sanatorium, which is located within walking distance to the resort park, the famous Slavyanovsky and Smirnovsky sources, as well as the mud bath, began in 2018.

She added that the total amount of funding for the project is about 1.5 billion rubles ($23.3 million).

Then, speaking of the project for the construction of the "Rusel" sanatorium with 420 places, the deputy minister noted that the development of the project documentation is in the final stages and as for the financial aspects, it will cost about two billion rubles ($31 million).

Ruhullaeva also stressed that development of design and estimate documentation and preparation of the necessary documents for the reconstruction project of the “Akademichesky” sanatorium in the resort town of Kislovodsk is also underway.

“To conduct construction work, an agreement of intent was signed with an investor from Azerbaijan in April 2017,” she pointed out.

Investments in the reconstruction of the sanatorium will amount to 2.8 billion rubles ($43 million).

Further, Olga Ruhullaeva spoke about the finished facilities. In 2016, the Azerbaijani Karat Holding built the "Istochnik" sanatorium with 444 places in Yessentuki, with a total investment of more than 1.5 billion rubles ($23.3 million).

In general, she noted a positive trend in cooperation with investors from Azerbaijan on investments in the sanatorium and resort complex of the Stavropol Krai.

The deputy minister added that the Stavropol Krai government provides investors with tax preferences in the form of exemption from property tax and lower income tax rates.

Azerbaijan is one of the main economic partners of Russia among the CIS countries and Russia remains one of Azerbaijan’s main foreign trade partners. Interregional cooperation plays an important role in the development of Russian-Azerbaijani trade and economic relations and the increase in trade turnover. Russia ranks first in terms of export of non-oil products from Azerbaijan.

The trade turnover between Azerbaijan and Russia amounted to $2.55 billion in 2018, which is 19.1 percent more than in 2017, according to Azerbaijan’s State Statistics Committee. The share of trade operations with Russia in 2018 accounted for 8.25 percent of the total foreign trade turnover of Azerbaijan.

It is noteworthy that the value of investments by Russian companies in Azerbaijan amounted to $4.4 billion, and the Azerbaijani investments in Russia stood at $1.2 billion. In 2018, the trade turnover between the two countries exceeded $2.5 billion.

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Mirsaid Ibrahimzade is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @MirsaidIbrahim1

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