Finance

Finance

London to host Second Caspian Corridor Conference

13 February 2014 13:57 (UTC +04:00)

IBA told APA-Economics that this follows the great success of the inaugural Caspian Corridor Conference that was held at Lancaster House in London in 2012.

The Caspian Corridor region (“the region”) includes, among others, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Georgia, the Kyrgyz Republic and Tajikistan. Increased efforts to diversify these economies, promote strong regional economic cooperation and stability in the region has led to high economic growth rates which are set to continue in the coming years. According to the IMF, GDP growth rate for the region will be sustained at around 6 per cent in 2014. With diversification of the economies, development of the financial services sector, and investment in regional and national infrastructure, opportunities for international trade and investment are set to grow.

The Caspian Corridor Conference will examine the region’s growth engines, its close ties with the UK and London, and offer key business intelligence on the region. The conference will draw high profile speakers from businesses across the region’s highest performing sectors and policy makers from the region, and the UK, enabling valuable connections for future engagement.

The conference will also look at the specific paths ahead for the Caspian Corridor countries. With threefold growth and the creation of 1.2 million jobs over the past decade, Azerbaijan continues to be attractive to investors. Like Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan is increasingly diversifying its economic output and continuing to grow its range of exports to the West. Meanwhile, Turkmenistan’s chemical industry is one of its fastest growing sectors and the country is also heavily expanding its maritime infrastructure, aiming to double cargo turnover to nearly 16 million tons by 2017.

Commenting on the conference, Dr. Jahangir Hajiyev, Chairman of the International Bank of Azerbaijan said: “We are proud that the UK is the largest foreign investor in Azerbaijan and are committed to building stronger and more expansive relationships with the UK and other international investors in the region.”

“We are glad to support second Caspian Corridor Conference. Business ties are strengthened between the UK and this region which is being dynamically developed and we expect that this will continue in 2014 and further years. The conference allows Caspian Sea region’s and London’s representatives establishing real values, business relations”, said the CEO of the London Stock Exchange Xavier Rolet.