Assa-Irada,
13, May 2008

Russia plans to bring its trade turnover with Azerbaijan to $4 billion by 2010, visiting Russian State Duma (parliament) speaker has said.

"There are real opportunities for this," Boris Gryzlov said in a meeting with his counterpart Ogtay Asadov on Tuesday.

Gryzlov said bilateral turnover currently constitutes $1.5 billion, but the figure is to be brought to $2 billion by the year-end.

The speaker said a law on mutual protection of investments was needed, as it would provide suitable conditions for more successful development of economic relations between the two neighboring countries.

Gryzlov said Russian companies planned to make investments in Azerbaijan. For instance, aluminum giant RUSAL intends to build a plant in the country.

He said a number of Russia's majors were cooperating with Azerbaijan, underscoring the importance of oil giant LUKoil's operation.

391 companies with Russian capital are currently operating in the South Caucasus republic. 174 of them are joint ventures, while 91 are fully Russian-owned and the remaining 126 are subsidiaries of Russian companies.

Gryzlov said Russia and Azerbaijan could also collaborate in implementing the North-South railway project. He said Russia supported building the Moscow-Baku-Tehran rail line and suggested establishing an international consortium for the purpose.