Azernews.Az

By Nigar Abbasova

The Islamic Corporation for the Development of the Private Sector (ICD) and Baku International Sea Trade Port held the first meeting with potential investors interested in Baku Free Trade Zone (FTZ).

A source in the financial market told Trend that the meeting was held in Beijing in mid February. The meeting brought together representatives of Chinese banks, investment funds, as well as IT and trade companies.

“The corporation started practical implementation of the MoU signed last year with the Port of Baku. The meeting is the first result of the joint work,” he said.

The ICD and Port of Baku signed the document in December 2016 within the first International Investment Conference. The main objective of the MoU is to study a potential capacity of the port and FTZ, being created in Alat settlement, as well as opportunities to attract private sector to the process of creating the FTZ.

“So far, we have held only one meeting, but the sides are interested in cooperation. In this regard talks on further cooperation may start in the short run,” the source clarified.

The ICD became the second international organization, attracted to the Baku FTZ project for consultations. The Azerbaijani government and the group of companies DP World (Dubai Port World – one of the world's largest port operators) earlier signed an agreement to provide consulting services for the establishment of the FTZ.

The FTZ is expected to become operational in the first half of 2017. Applications from investors wishing to work in FTZ will be accepted starting from March 2017.

Measures on the creation of a free trade zone type special economic area covering the territory of the Baku International Sea Trade Port in the Alat township of Baku’s Garadagh district was inked by a presidential decree on March 17, 2016.

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Nigar Abbasova is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @nigyar_abbasova

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