Azernews.Az

By Seymur Aliyev

Several member countries of the former Soviet bloc Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), such as Russia and Azerbaijan, have their own funding that should be directed to the development of the domestic economy, a top European banker said Monday.

"With regard to the cooperation between CIS member countries and the European Union (EU) on investments, euro-zone has limited opportunities now," Secretary General of the Banking Association for Central and Eastern Europe, Istvan Lengyel, told Trend news agency. "The EU has allocated definite financing for cooperation with neighboring countries, but it will be reduced. The EU budget is under discussion at the moment and now it amounts to one percent of member countries' GDP. This rate will decline. Therefore, CIS countries which possess their own finances must invest mostly in their own economy."

According to Lengyel, the funds should be used while considering all the positive sides and opportunities, as well as the risks involved.

Lengyel believes that science, culture, infrastructure projects and health are the priority areas for domestic investment in Azerbaijan.

Investments in the Azerbaijani economy are growing. According to the State Statistics Committee, over 11.135 billion manats ($14.184 billion) were invested in January-October 2012. The figure is 26.8 percent over the same period of last year.

Some 78.9 percent of the total amount falls to domestic investments. 74.2 percent of the invested funds accounts for the non-oil sector of the economy, which is a high indicator that gives an impetus to the development of the non-oil economy.

The increase in invested funds was achieved mainly due to the increase in budget allocations for investments. Public investments are spent under the state investment program, and state-funded large-scale infrastructure projects are being implemented across the country.

The official exchange rate is 0.7849 manats per USD as of November 26.