"We asked ourselves this question too, which is why the work done to create this zone had to answer this question. After all, there are free economic zones in different countries of the world today. As I mentioned, in some countries, this is due to natural conditions and geographical location. The practice of creating free economic zones in countries without access to the high seas has not been very successful. We have studied and analyzed successful and unsuccessful experiences. We believe that there are all the prerequisites for the attraction of investors to this zone in Azerbaijan. I think that, first of all, the geographical location of this place is favorable – it is located by the sea, next to the seaport, and it is a fairly large area. At the initial stage, 60 hectares of land are ready for development. However, a total of 850 hectares of land has been allocated. Land adjacent to this plot of land has already been earmarked so that no construction takes place there. This is necessary for future development," President Ilham Aliyev said in an interview with Azerbaijan Television while answering the question "Mr. President, in your opinion, what will attract investors to this Free Economic Zone and why would they invest here?".
"Azerbaijan has a very good investment environment. We demonstrated this both during the implementation of oil and gas projects and as a result of reforms carried out in other areas. A very good investment environment has been created. It is no coincidence that Azerbaijan is ranked 28th out of 190 countries in the World Bank's Doing Business report. This is a great achievement on a global scale. We are ahead of many developed countries in terms of these parameters. In other words, a good investment climate is certainly one of the main conditions for attracting investors," he said.