OREANDA-NEWS. February 5, 2009. (Azerbaijan’s Union of Turkish Industrialists and Businessmen) sets the goal to increase the number of its members in future.

TUSIAB General Secretary Yasin Geral said that is one of the goals to be achieved this year.

“Currently 290 companies out of more than 500 companies operating in Azerbaijan are TUSIAB members. We are intending to increase this number more,” Yasin Geral said.

The TUSIAB companies (including Turkish-Azerbaijani JVs) are engaged majorly in construction, energy and petrochemical fields. However, the petrochemical sector involves much less companies. Geral clarified that Turkey takes the first place as per volume of investments in Azerbaijan’s non-oil sector again in construction, including (construction of dwelling houses, architecture, social infrastructure) trade, restaurant business, service etc.

One of the TUSIAB’s major directions for the next year is to assist Turkish businessmen to find partners in Azerbaijan i.e. to develop contacts between Turkey’s and Azerbaijan’s business circles. Yasin Geral said that sufficiently big quantity of enterprises and organizations operating in Turkey periodically visit Azerbaijan.

“We discuss the possibility of holding business meetings between Turkish entrepreneurs and representatives of Azerbaijani state agencies in advance. Our task is also to organize the talks of Turkish companies’ representatives arriving in Azerbaijan with Azerbaijani enterprises and companies engaged in a similar area,” Geral stated. TUSIAB played an important role in organizing the Business Forum in Baku last year, which involved more than 130 Turkish businessmen during the visit of Turkey’s State Minister Gurshad Tuzmen to Baku.

“Besides organization of the meetings, we also inform Turkish businessmen about the investment climate in Azerbaijan and the most priority economic fields, amendments made to the tax legislation and customs procedures and will keep doing this henceforth,” Geral noted.

TUSIAB will keep on supporting its members operating at the local market. TUSIAB General Secretary said that the Union solves the companies’ problems, informs them about Azerbaijani Government’s position concerning the most important events in the country’s social, public and politic life as well as activities of the companies, organization of workshops for them and publishing the information bulletins and magazines.

As concerns TUSIAB charitable activity, Yasin Geral said that this year TUSIAB is going to render assistance to Azerbaijani refugees and IDPs, Karabakh war veterans and invalids. Last year the Union rendered help to approximately 600 refugees and IDPs.