Azerbaijani-Russian trade may break 2023 record in 2024 - Azerbaijani deputy PM
MINERALNYE VODY. Feb 28 (Interfax) - Azerbaijani-Russian trade, which reached a record of $4.4 billion in 2023, has every chance of breaking this record in 2024, Azerbaijani Deputy Prime Minister Shahin Mustafayev said.
"Our trade increased considerably and reached a record level of almost $4.4 billion in 2023. We hope to reach new, higher figures this year," Mustafayev said at the Russian-Azerbaijani Interregional Forum in Mineralnye Vody on Wednesday.
Serious headway was made in the past few years in practically all areas of cooperation, including investment interaction, industrial cooperation and cooperation in the transport and energy, agriculture, cultural and humanitarian, and many other spheres, he said.
"I want to especially note interaction on investment. Azerbaijan has invested more than $1 billion in the Russian economy, and Russia has invested more than $8.7 billion in the Azerbaijani economy. A large package of investment projects with Russian capital is now being implemented in Azerbaijan," Mustafayev said.
Russian enterprises invested $295 million in the Azerbaijani economy last year, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexei Overchuk said at the forum.
"Russia is among the five countries that have attracted the largest volume of foreign direct investment to the Azerbaijani economy. In 2023, Russia invested $295 million in Azerbaijan [...] Sixteen projects with Russian capital worth a total of 567 billion rubles are now being implemented in the country. These are [in] various industries - IT, car manufacturing, rail and aircraft construction, pharmaceuticals, the consumer industry, [and] oil and gas," Overchuk said.
"We are looking to develop financial, [and] interbank interaction. The share of the Russian ruble in commodity trade with the republic reached 54.2% in January-September 2023. But we need to expand independent financial infrastructure to develop our bilateral trade," he said.
Seventy-three Russian regions are involved in foreign trade operations with Azerbaijan, Overchuk said.