"Today, during the meetings held within the Turkiс Council Economic Summit, we discussed several areas. We touched on issues such as trade, transport, logistics, digitalization, energy transition, and our economies' readiness for this," Azerbaijani Economy Minister Mikayil Jabbarov, who attended the Turkic Council summit in Istanbul, told Report.
The minister noted that he and his colleagues agreed on creating a single platform to ensure the effectiveness of future activities:
"We agreed to establish a Unified Investment Fund and more efficient use of our transport and logistics corridors. On the other hand, I must say that companies from Turkic-speaking countries are also interested in cooperation. Currently, they participate as contractors. While Azerbaijan supports this activity, our long-term vision is that the participants should also act as investors."
Mikayil Jabbarov added that relevant agreements on this issue were already signed in late September.
"In the future, we will witness the growing interest of investment companies and investors in this area. Finally, we held bilateral meetings on the sidelines of the event. As you know, the countries represented here - Turkey, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan - are our important trade partners."
The decision to establish a Turkic Investment Fund was made during the 10th meeting of the Economy Ministers of the Cooperation Council of Turkic Speaking States in Baku in September this year. The aim is to mobilize additional resources in member countries to address infrastructure development, business financing and the lack of funding for investment projects.
In short, the fund will support sustainable economic and private sector development.