Azernews.Az

Turkey and Azerbaijan have made significant mutual investments in the past decade amounting to billions of dollars, a senior Azerbaijani official told a joint business forum in Baku on Monday.

Sevinj Hasanova, Deputy Minister of Economic Development, said Turkish investments amounted to $2 billion, while Azerbaijan invested $4.5 billion in the neighboring country in the 10-year period.

According to Hasanova, about 1,000 Turkish companies and five banks with Turkish capital are operating in Azerbaijan. The companies are engaged in a number of fields including agriculture, energy, finance, tourism, real estate, etc.

850 Azerbaijani companies are active in Turkey, the deputy minister said.

On bilateral trade, Hasanova said the figure was around $1.4 billion in January-October. Imports from Turkey amounted to $990 million, while exports made up $400 million. In comparison with the first ten months of 2010, the trade turnover surged 85 percent. Imports increased 64 percent, while exports – 2.7 times.

Kenan Yavuz, CEO of Turkey’s largest petrochemicals group Petkim, a company controlled by the Azerbaijani state oil company Socar, and Executive Director of Socar-Turcas joint venture, told the business forum that Azerbaijan is the biggest investor in Turkey owing to Socar. According to him, Socar-Turcas’ investments in Izmir’s industrial area are expected to reach $10 billion by 2023.

The business forum is attended by 250 companies operating in a variety of fields.