Azernews.Az

Representatives of 40 Italian and 60 Azerbaijani companies joined a business forum in Baku on Monday aiming to expand multi-faceted economic cooperation between the two countries.
Addressing the event, Deputy Economic Development Minister Niyazi Safarov said in his remarks that investments totaling $70 billion have been made in Azerbaijan so far, with foreign investment accounting for more than half of the amount.
Safarov noted that Azerbaijan-Italy trade turnover currently stands at $4 billion. $128 million of the amount is made up by goods imported to Azerbaijan, while the South Caucasus republic’s exports account for a lion’s share of the trade volume. "Azerbaijan and Italy’s main goal is to develop the non-oil sector, for which there is vast potential," the deputy minister said.
Italian Economic Development Undersecretary Adolfo Urso said a number of Italian companies are operating in Azerbaijan’s industrial and construction sectors. Also, several Italian firms are engaged in hotel construction in the domestic market. Several more Italian companies working in the fields of tourism, furniture-making and industries are seeking cooperation with Azerbaijan as well.
Urso pledged that Italy would assist Azerbaijan in diversifying its economy and could provide assistance in such sectors as agriculture, the food industry and tourism.
"4.3 million companies are presently operating in Italy, which is one company per 11 people. Food worth 26 billion euros is produced in Italy every year."
During the forum, organized by Azerbaijan’s Economic Development Ministry and the Azerbaijan Export and Investment Promotion Foundation (AZPROMO), Azerbaijan and Italy signed a document on economic cooperation. The document envisions boosting bilateral trade, establishing joint ventures and mutual promotion of investments.*