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Montenegro and Azerbaijan on Wednesday launched a 500 million euro project to turn a former naval base into a coastal resort, a big investment in the tiny Balkan republic, APA reports quoting Reuters.
The Kumbor base on the Adriatic coast was abandoned by the then Yugoslav navy in the early 2000s. Azerbaijan’s SOCAR oil company and developer Azmont Investments want to transform it into a resort with marinas, hotels and villas, said Shahin Mustafayev, Azerbaijan’s Economic Development Minister. The resort project is scheduled to be completed by 2016. It should create 6,500 jobs during its construction and 1,200 after completion.
Montenegrin Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic said the project and bilateral relations with oil and gas-rich Azerbaijan were of vital importance for Montenegro.
The Government of Montenegro and the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan (SOCAR) signed an agreement on long-term lease of Orijen Battalion barracks in Kumbor, which will be rebuilt into a tourist resort in July, 2012.
The document was signed in Podgoritsa city by Gafar Gurbanov (SOCAR) and and on the Montenegrin side – the Minister of Sustainable Development and Tourism Predrag Sekulic. Under the agreement, the Azerbaijani company is obliged to invest at least 52 million euros for development of the resort during the first 4 years of rent and 258 million euros in the first 8 years from inception of the lease. Fixed rents will be paid in advance for 45 years lease. Rents will consist of a fixed rent in the amount of 1 euro per square meter of terrain and variable rents of 5% of the profits.
At that time, President Rovnag Abdullayev told reporters that the participation of SOCAR in the tender for the tourism project in Montenegro is not part of the company’s plans and has a goal of supporting tourist companies of the country. Abdullayev said that SOCAR was not going to invest in this project and it has no such plans. “The goal – to provide organizational and legal support to tourism companies in Azerbaijan. Project management will deal with travel companies in Azerbaijan. SOCAR has no plans to engage in hotel business.”
Apa.az
