French embassy representatives and executives of French transnational companies visit SOCAR Polymer plants

On February 21, a delegation headed by Zacharie Gross, the Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ambassador of the Republic of France in Azerbaijan paid a visit to SOCAR Polymer’s PP and HDPE plants in the framework of his acquaintance tour to the Sumgayit Chemical Industrial Park.

The ambassador of France was accompanied by the Head of Economic Mission Serge Krebs, Economic Attaché Theophile Pastre, Second Secretary Frederic Devos, Executive Director for the Total company in Baku Regis Agut, Country General Manager for Schneider Electric in Central Asia Dan Vlasceanu, and Executive Director of the Azerbaijan-French Chamber of Commerce Zibar Huseynova.

With warm welcome greetings, the Deputy General Manager Fuad Ahmadov ushered the guests to the VIP meeting room of the on-site office premises. Following the large-screen demonstration of a short introductory film about the “SOCAR Polymer” project, F.Ahmadov gave the guests general information about the company and its PP and HDPE plants, the annual production capacity and sales markets. The company’s largest export markets being in Turkey and Russia, the sales geography was mentioned to have stretched far to also include Belarus, Ukraine, several Eastern European countries and, recently, China and Taiwan, among about a dozen other buyer-countries. As the ambassador inquired about the success-promoting factors, the Deputy General Director emphasized the rewarding combination of a young and dynamic personnel with the average age of 32, and purposeful investment into high-standard trainings for local specialists’ development. Further elaborating on the success-factors key to the project, Mr.Ahmadov underlined the benefits of residency in the Sumgayit Chemical Industrial Park such as infrastructural support, 10 year property right, exemption from land and profit tax, and 7 years’ exemption from VAT on equipment and plants, which has saved the Project approximately 100 mln USD.

In his turn, Zacharie Gross thanked Mr.Ahmadov on behalf of the entire delegation for the warm reception and provided information. He expressed his pleasure to hear that the young team of the SOCAR Polymer company has been able to implement a Project that boosts the capacity of the petrochemical industry not only in Azerbaijan, but also in the entire Southern Caucasus region. Mr.Gross added that French businessmen are very interested in cooperation with Azerbaijan companies and making investments.

Following the official part of the visit, Junior Process Engineer Farid Aliyev accompanied the guests on a bus tour round the PP and HDPE plants for better acquaintance with the production facility.