21 July 2018•Update: 21 July 2018
By Eda Fatma Topcu
ISTANBUL
Azerbaijan and Turkey are always compelling as long as they continue to work in unity as two countries, head of Azerbaijan-Turkey Business Association said on Saturday.
"It is of utmost importance to work for eternal friendship as businesspeople of cognate two countries," Cemal Yangin said at a business dinner organized by Turkey's Foreign Economic Relations Board (DEIK) in Istanbul.
Selcuk Akat, chairman of the DEIK Turkey-Azerbaijan Business Council, said that Turkey had $11 billion investments in Azerbaijan, whose investments in Turkey reached $13 billion.
Two countries' bilateral trade was $1.7 billion in 2017 and $759.4 million in the first five months of the current year, according to Turkish Statistical Institute.
"More than 2,000 Azerbaijani businesspeople have established companies in Turkey and they work globally from the country. Meanwhile, in Azerbaijan, around 2,500 Turkish companies are active," Akat said.
Bulent Karaca, vice president of Tekfen Construction, stressed Turkey has gained momentum economically in recent years.
"With this economic growth, projects and cooperation performed with Azerbaijan had big importance," he added.
Two countries have several joint projects including Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan Oil Pipeline, Baku-Tbilis-Erzurum Gas Pipeline, Baku-Tbilisi-Kars Railway and Trans Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline Project (Tanap).
* Gokhan Ergocun contributed to this story from Ankara
