Azernews.Az

By Amina Nazarli

Azerbaijan has turned into an attractive country for investors over the past decade and now famous Swiss company SIKA joined the list of the foreign companies doing business in the country.

Azerbaijan’s Deputy Economy Minister Niyazi Safarov announced that SIKA has become a resident of the Sumgayit Chemical Industrial Park, which enjoys huge infrastructure on an area of 295.62 hectares and resides nearby Sumgayit city that is 32.5 km away from Baku.

The Park established in 2011 with aim to accelerate the economic and industrial production development of Azerbaijan’s non-oil sector has already had five residents and the Swiss company with the initial $5.4 million investment will be another investor contributing for production of competitive products from local raw materials and creating new jobs.

Other five residents are Azertexnolayn LLC, SOCAR Polymer, Azerfloat CJSC, Azerbaijan Fibro Cement Ltd, Baku Non-Ferrous Metals & Ferroalloys Company and SIKA company.

SIKA, established in 1910 and having over 150 factories and plants in 80 countries, will be engaged in the production of raw materials for construction mixtures and finished products.

Sika LLC, a division of Swiss SIKA AG, created a plant for manufacturing concrete mixers in Baku in 2015.

Director of Sumgayit Chemical Industrial Park Nazim Talibov noted that the company will build a plant with annual production capacity of 5,000 tons on the park’s territory.

General Manager at SIKA Azerbaijan Adem Yayla, for his part, announced that the company plans to start production in the first quarter of 2017.

He told reporters that the plant construction is expected to be completed by late 2016 and start the production of construction mixtures from 2017.

“We plan to produce the construction mixtures which are currently imported by the country. Initially, the products will be used for the park’s needs (around 300 tons a year) and then for the country. But we plan to start the export of our products within 2017,” he emphasized.

He noted that Azerbaijan has great potential not only to meet the domestic demand for construction materials, but also export it to neighboring countries.

Deputy Director of the Industrial Park Zaur Mammadov, in turn, said that Azerbaijan will export the construction materials manufactured by SIKA plant to the neighboring countries including Russia, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Georgia and Iran.

He noted that currently the Park attracts the attention of many foreign companies.

“Companies from Canada, Austria, South Korea, Hungary, Croatia and other countries also show interest in starting production in various spheres such as pharmaceutics, medical and chemical products, construction and so on,” said Mammadov.

The Sumgayit Chemical Industrial Park chooses its residents based on such criteria as the use of innovative technologies, compliance of technologies with environmental standards and the products should be export-oriented and competitive, according to the deputy director.

In order to increase the investment attractiveness of the park its residents are exempt from paying income, land and property taxes for seven years. Moreover, equipment and technology used in the park are also exempt from value-added tax.

The Azerbaijani government takes serious measures and creates a room for new foreign investors as the national economy is open for all investors that will positively impact the country’s economic potential.

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Amina Nazarli is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @amina_nazarli

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