Azerbaijan, Kyrgyzstan should expand investments: minister

Baku, Azerbaijan, Dec. 21 Trend: Azerbaijan and Kyrgyzstan should develop and expand mutual investments, Azerbaijan’s Economy Minister Shahin Mustafayev said. He made the remarks in Baku Dec. 21 during the 6th meeting of economy ministers of the Cooperation Council of Turkic Speaking States. Mustafayev said that Azerbaijan has well-developed mutual investments with Turkey and Kazakhstan, so these ties should be developed with Kyrgyzstan as well. “Azerbaijan has invested $8 billion in the Turkish economy, $6.7 billion of which accounted for such projects as the Petkim Petrochemical Complex, the Star Oil Refinery and the Trans-Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline (TANAP), and the remaining $1.3 billion were allocated to other spheres,” the minister said. “I would like to note that we plan to bring the total volume of Azerbaijani investments to Turkey to $18-20 billion by 2020.” In turn, Turkey invested $10 billion in Azerbaijan’s economy, $2.6 billion of which was invested in Azerbaijan’s non-oil sector, Mustafayev said. “Turkey ranks first in terms of investments in Azerbaijan’s non-oil economy,” the minister said.