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Drawing foreign investments in Azerbaijan's economy is a priority for the country, said Sahil Babayev, the Azerbaijani Deputy Minister of Economy and Industry.

Noting that the country is ready to cooperate in this area with all countries, Babayev added:“We are interested in attracting investments in all sectors of the economy.”

At an early stage of Azerbaijan's independence, foreign investments are mainly made in the oil sector of the economy, he told reporters on October 29. “But now the volume of foreign investments in the non-oil sector is also growing.”

"The investments from Russia and Turkey play an important role in the non-oil sector,” he said. “At the moment, we are working on increasing the inflow of foreign investments in Azerbaijan. We are negotiating with different countries and considering new opportunities as part of the intergovernmental commissions. We are negotiating with foreign companies through holding various business forums."

“Moreover, the necessary actions are made to further improve the business and investment sphere in Azerbaijan,” he said. “A strategy is being worked out to promote foreign investments in the non-oil sector.”

"Azerbaijan has a lot of advantages, including financial stability, geographic location, availability of raw materials,” he said. “Together with the liberal economic regime in the country, and competitive economy, this creates opportunities to further increase the flow of foreign investments."

According to the report of the State Statistics Committee, the total volume of foreign investments in fixed assets in Azerbaijan amounted to 4.968 billion manat in January-September 2015, increasing by 41.3 percent compared to the same period of 2014.

Some 89.6 percent (4.45 billion manat) of investments made by foreign countries and international organizations in Azerbaijan's economy accounted for investors from Great Britain, Norway, Turkey, the US, Iran, Russia, Japan, Malaysia and Sweden.

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