GCC Businesses Looking to Invest in Azerbaijan

Azerbaijan, the south Caucasian nation located in Central Asia, is wooing businesses in the GCC region to invest in their country, which has vast reserves of oil and gas besides minerals.

The Azeri-Chirag-Deepwater Gunashli (ACG) field is the largest oilfield in Azerbaijan, located in the Caspian Sea, and the oil reserves are estimated to be between 7 billion and 13 billion barrels, accounting for 0.4% of global reserves.

Likewise, Azerbaijan’s natural gas reserves are estimated to be between 2.5 trillion and 48 trillion cubic feet and the country’s largest gas condensate field in Shah Deniz with estimated reserves of 1.2 trillion cubic meters.

Azerbaijan also has deposits of coloured and half-value stones, including amethyst, granite, tourmaline, chalcedony, and agate. There are also large reserves of dolomite, quartz sands, Icelandic spar, and lithographic stone.

Investors from the GCC region have evinced interest to tap these resources and a high-level trade delegation from the Federation of GCC Chambers, including a group of investors, have reached Baku, the Azerbaijani capital, to discuss investment opportunities and increase trade exchange.

More than 300 companies from the GCC region are already operating in that country in various sectors such as energy, food security, industry, logistics, technology, construction and infrastructure, and tourism. The trade volumes between the GCC and Azerbaijan was put around $1.8 billion in 2023 and both sides want to increase it further.

The GCC investors’ interest to invest in Azerbaijan, which offers a plethora of opportunities for them, is understandable as there is an emerging opportunity presented by shifting trade connectivity in Eurasia.

Azerbaijan serves as a major transit route in the sprawling International North-South Transport Corridor, a network of roads, railways, and shipping routes connecting Azerbaijan, Russia, India, Iran, and other countries, linking the Baltic Sea to the Gulf.

Though the corridor is usually associated with the efforts of Russia and Iran to connect their respective ports, the initiative offers GCC states an avenue to tap into Russia’s market as well as trade opportunities as Moscow is shifting towards Asia away from the West.

Azerbaijan Ready

The Executive Director of AZPROMO, Azerbaijan’s Export and İnvestment Promotion Agency, Yusuf Abdullayov said that his country was keen to address all challenges facing the Gulf investors as the government wants to attracts more investments from the region.

Nearly 50 Saudi companies were gearing up for investment in Azerbaijan’s sectors of energy, food security, and logistics, he told Saudi Arabia’s Arabic daily Al Eqtisadiah on the side lines of Gulf-Azerbaijani Economic Forum in Baku.

Yusuf Abdullaov discussions were on to increase the number of Saudi companies investing in the country from 50 to 80 with total investments of $4 billion.

He said that the Saudi companies will establish an integrated residential complex, in addition to a huge commercial centre.

The Forum also showcased the investment opportunities in the Alat Free Economic Zone and the Berli Industrial Zone to the GCC delegation.