Baku hosts Azerbaijan-Italy business meeting

Baku. 15 April. REPORT.AZ/ An Azerbaijan-Italy business meeting has been held in Baku.

Minister of Economy and Industry Shahin Mustafayev spoke about bilateral relations between Azerbaijan and Italy, noting, the trade turnover in 2014 exceeded $5 bln.

At his words, 66 Italian companies operate in Azerbaijan.

“Italian companies in Azerbaijan have invested $485 mln in Azerbaijan’s economy. Of this, $374 mln has been invested in the oil sector, $108 mln in the non-oil sector”, Mustafayev said.

The Minister added that Italian companies are contractors in 8 projects in the worth of $810 mln.

Italian Minister of Economic Development, Federica Guidi touched upon the Italy-Azerbaijan relations, noted that Italy mostly imports oil and gas products from Azerbaijan.

“Not only large Italian companies, but also small and medium enterprises also function in Azerbaijan. At the meeting with the President Ilham Aliyev, he told me that Azerbaijan’s agriculture sector has opportunities for investments. Moreover, we are ready to cooperate in energy sphere. We also intend to cooperate in banking, treatment of polluted areas and other spheres and hope that Italian companies can provide help in these spheres”, Guidi said.

At the end of the event, SOCAR Polymer and Maire Tecnimont companies signed Memorandum of Understanding on cooperation.