On September 20th President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev opened the cutting-edge shipyard in the Garadagh District, Baku.
The shipyard whose groundbreaking ceremony was on March 19, 2010 will build, repair ships and provide maritime engineering services.
President Ilham Aliyev saw a video on the activity of the shipyard and a model of the enterprise.
President of the State Oil Company Rovnag Abdullayev briefed the President on the operations of the shipyard. A relevant Memorandum of Understanding was signed in Baku last November by Azerbaijan`s State Oil Company (SOCAR), Azerbaijan Investment Company (AIC) and Singaporean Keppel Offshore & Marine, one of the largest offshore and marine groups in the world.
Under the Memorandum, 65% of the shares in the facility belong to SOCAR, 25% to AIC and 10% to Keppel Offshore & Marine.
The facility was provided with equipment made in Finland, Netherlands, Germany, the Czech Republic, United Kingdom, South Korea and Singapore.
The Head of State started the plant. The total area of the plant is 620 thousand sq. meters.
The plant has the capacity to process 25 thousand tons of metal structures. The shipyard can build four tankers with 15 thousand ton, two with 70 thousand ton storage capacity, four platform supply vessels, and refurbish 800-10 vessels.
The plant will be employing 1250 people at the initial stage with a possibility to reach 2000.
The President saw the stands reflecting the activity of the plant.
The Head of State addressed the ceremony.
Lee Yi Shyan, Senior Minister of State, Singapore`s Ministry of Trade And Industry made his remarks too.
The Azerbaijani President attended a ceremony of naming the floating dry dock.

AzerTAc