On 27 February, the Azerbaijani ambassador to Ukraine Azer Khudiyev announced that his country’s investments in Ukraine might reach a sum of $1.5bn-$2bn this year, reported report.az.
“We want to raise this level of investment up to $1.5-2 billion overall. And now we intend to do this through our two trading houses - these are good sites, and good economic opportunities, where business circles of Ukraine and Azerbaijan gather and discuss necessary and concrete things," he said.
The Azerbaijani ambassador also said that agreements had already been reached between Ukrainian partners "on more joint ventures established in one or another territory.”
“We have intentions to invest here. So, in this regard, I have recently talked to our economy minister. He will do the Ukraine-Belarus-Moldova tour soon. Our president gave an instruction to strengthen our economic positions in this region.” In November, Russia's telecom operator MTS signed an agreement with Telco Solutions and Investments, which is owned by Azerbaijan's Bakcell telecom company, on the sale of MTS operations in Ukraine - Vodafone Ukraine - for $734mn, including deferred payments of about $84mn. Bakcell telecom company is incorporated in NEQSOL Holding.
According to a bne IntelliNews correspondent in Eastern Europe, Azerbaijan's foreign direct investment (FDI) in Ukraine stood just at $210mn in 2019, and $216mn in 2017. The total FDI into Ukraine in 2019 was an estimated $2.5bn.
Azerbaijan’s investments in Ukraine were also one of the major topics during the last visit of the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to Azerbaijan (Caucasus Watch reported).
