Azernews.Az

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev opened a modern shipyard in Baku's Garadag district on September 20, state news agency AzerTag reported.

Construction of the shipyard started in March 2010 on 620,000 square meters of land. It will be operated by a joint venture established in December 2010 by Azerbaijan's state oil company Socar, the Azerbaijani Investment Company and Singapore's Keppel Offshore & Marine.

Socar holds 65 percent of the joint venture while the Azerbaijan Investment Company and Keppel have 25 percent and 10 percent respectively.

Socar President Rovnaq Abdullayev said the shipyard has a capacity of building four 15,000-tons of cargo ships or two 70,000-tons of tankers and four platform supply vessels a year. It will also repair between 80 and 100 vessels a year.

The shipyard, which has "no analogue" in the Caspian region, has been provided with up-to-date equipment bought from Finland, the Netherlands, the Czech Republic, the UK, South Korea and Singapore, Abdullayev said.

It currently has a 1,250-strong staff, which will be increased to 2,000 in the future.

Construction of the Baku shipyard will play an important role in the strengthening of Azerbaijan's economic and industrial potential. It is one of the largest infrastructure projects implemented in the country.

A dry-dock, another production workshop and a bridge are planned to be built as part of the second phase of the project.

It was said that the construction of the shipyard will further strengthen Azerbaijan's leading position in the Caspian Sea. It will also help create a ship building industry in the country.