By AZE.US
President Ilham Aliyev has instructed Azerbaijan’s State Oil Fund, known as SOFAZ, to increase its assets to $100 billion from about $75 billion, according to remarks at the Second Azerbaijan International Investment Forum.
Adebayo Ogunlesi, chairman and chief executive of Global Infrastructure Partners, disclosed the target while introducing Aliyev to forum participants in Baku. Ogunlesi said the president gave the instruction to SOFAZ Executive Director Israfil Mammadov a day earlier.
Fund Would Need to Add $25 Billion
Reaching the target would require the fund’s assets to rise by another $25 billion, or roughly one-third from the level cited at the forum. No deadline or specific sources of growth were announced.
Ogunlesi said SOFAZ’s assets had grown from $840 million to $75 billion. He also said firms represented at the forum collectively manage about $30 trillion, as Azerbaijan seeks to draw more international capital into new projects.
SOFAZ accumulates Azerbaijan’s oil and gas revenues, invests them in international markets and finances transfers to the state budget. Raising the target to $100 billion would strengthen the country’s long-term financial buffer, although detailed investment parameters have not yet been disclosed.
Sources: Vesti Baku; Office of the President of Azerbaijan; Report.