Azernews.Az

Head of SOCAR Turkey Kenan Yavuz said Azerbaijan will become Turkey's largest energy investor with the commissioning of Star refinery next year,AzerTag state news agency reported.

"The construction of the facility is successfully developing. Turgas owns 18.5% of the shares in the project. Turkey, a country that spends 60 bln dollars annually to import energy, needs very much Star refinery," he told journalists.

"Azerbaijan will invest in the Turkish economy nearly $17-$20 bln to become the largest investor of Turkey," said Yavuz.

Turkey is the third largest trade partner of Azerbaijan after Russia and the United States.

According to the State Statistics Committee, the volume of Turkish investments in Azerbaijan's economy amounted to 186.34 million manats or 5.5 percent of the total foreign investment in January-September 2013.

Currently, there are 2,000 companies with Turkish capital operating in Azerbaijan, which makes up 36 percent of all foreign companies operating in the country. The number of companies with Azerbaijani capital in Turkey reached 1,100 by the end of 2012.

As of 2012, the trade turnover between the two countries amounted to $2.12 billion.

Mutual investments between Azerbaijan and Turkey exceed $10 billion. The amount of Azerbaijani investments in Turkey in the coming years is projected at $21 billion.

According to the estimates, Turkish companies have invested $6.5 billion in Azerbaijan's economy so far.