According to Rafat Mammadov, Azerbaijani companies have several billions of dollars in capital reserved for investments. Slovenia is an interesting country for investing, he added.

Mammadov told the Slovenian-Azerbaijani business and investment conference in Baku on Tuesday that the trade between the countries is modest. It stood at ER 7m last year, according to the national statistics office of Azerbaijan.

There are many opportunities for cooperation between companies from the two countries, in particular in agriculture, food industry, information technology, telecommunications and tourism, Mammadov added.

Investments in the Azerbaijani economy in the last ten years reached US$144.4bn, of which 38% was invested in the petroleum industry. Foreign investments amounted to US$73.2bn.

Boštjan Skalar, acting director of the SPIRIT public agency for investment and tourism promotion, pointed to the good political and economic relations between the countries, and offered assistance both to Azerbaijani and Slovenian companies.

Skalar also invited investors from Azerbaijan to invest in Slovenia, also as part of the ongoing privatisation round in the country. Slovenia needs fresh capital, while Azerbaijan wants to internationalise its capital, he added.

Today's conference is a part of the multi-day visit to Russia and Azerbaijan by a large Slovenian business delegation. The visit started last week in Moscow.