Azernews.Az

By Gulgiz Dadashova

Azerbaijan’s active oil and gas industry and its plans to build new processing facilities give impetus to the development of the chemical industry in the Sumgayit Chemical Industrial Park.

Sumgayit Chemical Industrial Park Deputy Director Zaur Mammadov said a large part of the significant resources of raw materials across the country will be processed by the facilities.

He said the commissioning of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway and other transport capabilities will allow the country to have access to the markets in Turkey, Georgia, Iran, CIS and China [ through Kazakhstan].

The first construction phase of the Sumgayit Chemical Industrial Park will be completed by late 2015. It is scheduled to accommodate 35-40 enterprises, which will create 10,000 new jobs in the industrial area of Sumgayit Chemical Industrial Park. The territory of Sumgayit Chemical Industrial Park will be divided into two parts - the administrative and social and industrial zones.

Earlier, Head of Azerbaijan’s state energy company SOCAR’s Azerkimya PU Mukhtar Babayev said Azerbaijan is planning to commission some rigs for the production of polypropylene and high density polyethylene on the territory of Sumgayit Chemical Industrial Park in 2016-2017.

According to the plan, construction and commissioning of the new plants will take between two and two and one-half years. Preparations are underway and parts of the equipment have already been purchased. Production of high density polyethylene is also underway.

To increase the investment attractiveness of the park, its residents are exempt from income, land and property taxes for seven years. Also equipment and technology used in the park are exempt from value added tax. Two residents have already been registered there - SOCAR-Polimer and Azertekhnolayn limited liability companies.

The authorized capital of the SOCAR Polimer Company, which was established as part of the development of polymer production in Azerbaijan, was increased from 51 to 100 million manats. SOCAR, a 100 percent plant founder, sold 49 percent of the share capital to private companies.

SOCAR is keen on expanding operations in the retail oil products market abroad. It is now involved in exploring oil and gas fields, producing, processing, and transporting oil, gas, and gas condensate, marketing petroleum and petrochemical products in the domestic and international markets, and supplying natural gas to industry and the public in Azerbaijan.

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