Existence of decent, high-level infrastructure is important for business. Azerbaijan has taken serious steps to improve business environment. This is proved by Azerbaijan’s being among the top ten reformist countries and holding the 25th place in Doing Business program. Of course, this plays and will play a positive role in involvement of investments in Azerbaijan. All leading international financial organizations highly appreciate Azerbaijan’s activity in this field. Therefore, foreign companies like Swiss chemical company Sika operates in Azerbaijan.
Switzerland-based Sika was established in 1910 and has been operating more than 200 plants in 104 countries. It entered Azerbaijan’s market 14 years ago and has been operating as Construction Chemicals Plant in Sumgayit Chemical Industry Park since 2018.
Director General Adem Yayla told Report that they were trying to introduce all necessary services in construction field: "In 1910, the company aimed at operation in water isolation systems. Thereafter, it started to operate in several fields. Our strategy intends quick expansion in the developing markets our activity. It’s observed in the markets that the urbanization extends and megacities are developing. This leads to increase of demand for safe, quake- and fire-resistant materials. Among them are hermetization and reinforced concrete."
According to him, Sika is a comany specialized in production of systems and products on combination, compression, strengthening and protection in construction material adn autombile industry: "More than 50% of automobiles are equipped with Sika products. Moreover, thanks to supplements reducing use of water, more than 25 million litres of water resources are saved during concrete production."
He said that more than 30% of products designed for interior of machines and reducing sounds belong to Sika.
According to him, they invested AZN 5 million in Sumgayit Chemical industry Park: "Currently, Sika’s share in Azerbaijan’s construction market is 15%. We try to have more share in the market. For the present, the company has 26 employees and we plan to increase the number of employees to 44 in the future. Along with this, we’ll make more investments in the country. Some of raw materials used in the construction field are still imported, but we want to produce those products in the country’.
He also spoke about the export potential: "Azerbaijan has transit opportunities. Our intention is to export products to other countries. These countries are Georgia, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan. In addition, or products are introduced under the brand of ‘Made in Azerbaijan'."
Speaking about business environment in the country, Adem Yayla said that the business environment in the country reached higher level in the past three years: "The state created a condition meeting European standards. Construction Materials Association was established. I believe we’ll see more positive changes in the construction materials soon."
For the present, 60 Swiss companies operate in Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan implements 38 projects jointly with SECO and 16 projects with SDC. Switzerland invested nearly $844 million in Azerbaijan, and Azerbaijan invested $1.2 billion in Switzerland.
Photo: Elchin Agayev, Video: Vugar Khanlarov