Azerbaijan is interested in building a big port on the Danube in Serbia, as well as in the privatisation of Serbian ports and companies and investments in energy, Azerbaijani Ambassador in Belgrade Eldar Hasanov stated on Sunday.

He announced that a business forum of the two countries' businessmen would be staged in Belgrade in autumn.

In an interview for Tanjug, Ambassador Hasanov said that his country is interested in building a port on the Sava River near Sabac, an inter-modal terminal for combined transport and construction of the remaining Corridor 10 sections at Pirot and Grdelica, for which tender has not yet been called.

The Serbian Ministry for Infrastructure and Energy released on July 13 that Azerbaijan is interested in building a port on the Danube River, on the territory of some 200 hectares.

The ambassador said that Azerbaijan is interested in Serbian factories and real estate, pointing out that there is mutual interest in opening joint companies in Serbia and Azerbaijan.

The Serbian side also wishes to open a series of companies in Azerbaijan, which is why an important business forum would be staged in Belgrade in September, which would gather biggest companies from Azerbaijan and Serbia and enable them to learn more about each other and reach agreements on tangible cooperation, the ambassador said.

Hasanov said that Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Serbian President Boris Tadic agreed during their June meeting in Belgrade to invest all efforts in ensuring that economic relations between the two countries are as good as their political ties which are, as he said, currently on the highest possible level.

An expert delegation sent by the Azerbaijani president arrived in Serbia this week and had around 30 meetings with local officials, during which Serbian representatives presented numerous projects in various areas.

Over the past year, ever since the Azerbaijani Embassy opened in Serbia, the exchange between the two countries increased from EUR 1.5 million to EUR 184 million.