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President Ilham Aliyev: French companies can take active part in a number of projects in Azerbaijan

19 November 2009 09:22 (UTC +04:00)

Baku â€“ APA. President Ilham Aliyev received the delegation of the Movement of the French Enterprises (MEDEF) on November 18, APA reports. The head of state informed the delegation about the ongoing processes of economic development in Azerbaijan. According to him, France and Azerbaijan have had good economic relations for long years, French companies are successfully operating in the country. President said Azerbaijanâ€™s economy was developing rapidly, the country had recently been leader in the world for the economic growth rate.

Ilham Aliyev said Azerbaijan was holding one of the leading places for the direct investment per capita, Azerbaijanâ€™s cooperation with French companies was successful.

President noted that the fall of oil price had not influenced the economic development of Azerbaijan.
â€œAzerbaijan has the image of a country protecting foreign investments,â€ President said and added that French companies could take an active part in a number of projects in the country.
â€œThe solid waste incineration plant that has been founded recently is a good example for it. This plant will help improve the ecological situation in the capital,â€ he said.
Ilham Aliyev expressed his confidence that French companies would participate in various tenders in Azerbaijan.
â€œI am glad that Total company has begun working in one of the prospective wells. I hope it will produce positive results soon. But I consider that the investments in the non-energy sector are also very attractive. We can speak about agriculture, information technologies. We allocate great funds on the development of information technologies. We pay special attention to the space industry. We plan to launch our satellite. I think it will happen in a few years,â€ he said.

The head of state said Azerbaijan was interested in the development of non-oil sector. He said there was large potential in this field and Azerbaijan Investment Company provides successful activity. He noted he was hopeful that the visit of the delegation of French Owners Organization to Azerbaijan would be useful.

Head of the delegation, Mrs. Pascal Janine Perez said MEDEF united French companies operated in different fields and introduced their activities to the world. Mrs. Perez said French companies were interested in cooperation with Azerbaijan. She said there were good relations between business circles of the countries. â€œThe French companies represented in our delegation are covering fields of energy, transport, banking services, legal examination. Some of these companies are already operating in your region. Share of French companies in the Azerbaijani market increases year by year. We are fourth investor in Azerbaijan. Our companies are already working in the oil and gas sector. But we would like to strengthen our positions in other fields tooâ€.

Perez expressed confidence that this visit will be useful for determination of general view of cooperation.