Promising Directions of Investment Diplomacy of Azerbaijan

Abstract

The purpose of the study is to identify promising areas of investment diplomacy in encouraging foreign investment in the economy of Azerbaijan. As a result of the study, the tasks of identifying areas of agreements with countries of the world to encourage foreign investment and identify areas belonging to attracting foreign investment have been solved. The author considers investments made in Azerbaijan; studies investments directed abroad. A limitation in the study was the lack of open information before 2000 on benefits and other measures in agreements between Azerbaijan and other countries, the lack of information on investment investments abroad by sectors of the economy, and the discrepancy in figures between the CBA and UNCTAD. The study used the methods of grouping, analysis and comparison. The legal framework, information from reports of international organizations, forums were used. The scientific novelty of the study is that the author considered new trends in the field of investment attractiveness and made proposals on the directions of Azerbaijan’s investment diplomacy. The author found that agreements, conventions and protocols have a different structure and significant differences in the content of bilateral investment treaties allow the country to retain certain leverage. In the sectoral context, the largest flows of investments were directed to the development of industry, construction and transport. Since 2006, there has been an increase in investment in the transport sector, and since 2014 in construction. Despite the growth of foreign investment in these sectors, statistics still recorded an increase in the inflow of foreign investment in the sector of crude oil and natural gas production. Also, 30% of Azerbaijan’s direct investment abroad is in the oil sector. In order to implement promising areas of Azerbaijan’s investment diplomacy in the near future, it was proposed to introduce active investment diplomacy.

Keywords

• encouragement
• investment
• negotiations
• agreement
• investment diplomacy