Turkish companies in Karabakh restoration conducive to reintegration of economic ties

By Azernews

Chairman of the Agency for Small and Medium-Sized Business Development Board Orkhan Mammadov has said that the involvement of Turkish businessmen in the process of reintegrating Azerbaijan’s liberated lands into the economy forms a new direction for bilateral economic relations.

He made the remarks said at the General Conference of the Azerbaijan-Turkey Businessmen Association, Azernews reports.

Mammadov mentioned that the agency received over 1,000 applications from local and foreign enterprises for doing business in the country’s liberated territories. In this regard, he noted that most of the foreign applications received by the agency to do business in the liberated territories belong to Turkish companies.

Moreover, the board chairman underlined that the measures aimed to promote the development of tourism, agriculture, mining industry, building materials production, renewable energy, and the establishment of new transport and logistics corridors in Azerbaijan’s Karabakh region, will create new opportunities for enhancing ties with Turkey.

Underscoring that 99 percent of businesses in Azerbaijan and Turkey are SMBs, he stated that the expansion of economic ties between SMBs can make a significant contribution to the increase in total trade turnover and investment between the two countries.

Mammadov emphasized that the agency is ready to support entrepreneurs working in Azerbaijan or wishing to establish a business.

Azerbaijan and Turkey collaborate in a variety of economic spheres and have completed major energy and infrastructure projects such as Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan, Baku-Tbilisi-Kars, and TANAP.

Turkey imports Azerbaijani natural gas through the South Caucasus Gas Pipeline (Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum) and TANAP. Azerbaijan supplies gas to Turkey only from the Shah Deniz field. The supplies have been available since July 2007.

In 2021, Azerbaijan and Turkey signed the Shusha Declaration on Allied Relations, which focuses on defense cooperation, promoting regional stability and prosperity, and establishing new transportation routes.

The two countries' joint goal among others is to bring the mutual trade turnover to $15 billion in 2023. As of 2021, the trade turnover between the two countries amounted to $4.6 billion. So far, Turkey is Azerbaijan’s second-largest investor followed by the UK.

Additionally, Turkey was one of the first countries that expressed its interest and readiness to participate in the restoration of Azerbaijan’s liberated territories.