BAKU, Azerbaijan, September 11. The State Oil Fund of Azerbaijan (SOFAZ) is expanding its cooperation with leading Asian investment institutions.
This was announced in a statement released by SOFAZ following a business visit of the delegation, led by CEO Israfil Mammadov, to China from September 6 through 11.
According to the information, the visit focused on strengthening investment cooperation with China and expand opportunities for mutually beneficial partnerships.
During the visit, the delegation held meetings with representatives from various international financial institutions, investment companies, and government agencies, and participated in major regional events.
The main part of the visit took place within the framework of the China International Fair for Investment and Trade (CIFIT) held in Xiamen. SOFAZ representatives attended the fair's opening ceremony. Additionally, meetings were held with the Chairman and CEO of CIC, Qingsong Zhang, and the CEO of Brookfield Asset Management, Bruce Flatt. Then, Mammadov participated in a roundtable chaired by Vice President of China Han Zheng. The event was attended by senior officials from Chinese central and regional government bodies, as well as heads of leading global corporations and representatives of global companies from the energy, finance, industrial, technology, healthcare, and consumer sectors.
Furthermore, Mammadov spoke at a panel discussion dedicated to the China-ASEAN Joint Investment Council (CAJIC) during a session titled "China's Outbound Investment." The discussion, which involved leading sovereign investors from the region, focused on opportunities to attract more investment to the area through joint efforts and to strengthen capital exchange between China and ASEAN. In his remarks, Mammadov emphasized that the Chinese and ASEAN markets should be viewed as a unified economic ecosystem rather than as separate entities.
According to him, for SOFAZ, cooperation with the region entails not only allocating capital but also establishing reliable partnerships and gaining deep market expertise. He also noted that the fund's participation in this format holds strategic importance for strengthening Azerbaijan's financial ties with Asian markets.
During the visit, the SOFAZ delegation also expanded its ties with Brookfield Asset Management, one of the world's leading financial firms. The delegation participated in a forum organized by Brookfield Asset Management in Hong Kong. The forum discussions focused on the current state of global capital markets—including investment prospects in credit, infrastructure, energy, real estate, and private equity—and featured insights from leading international institutional investors regarding emerging trends in these sectors.
The outcomes of the visit demonstrate the continuous expansion of SOFAZ’s investment relationships in the Asian region. Meetings with CIC serve to further deepen the fund's established institutional ties in this market, while its status as a founding member of CAJIC contributes to SOFAZ securing a significant position within the network of the region's leading sovereign wealth funds.
At the same time, expanding cooperation with global institutional investors such as Brookfield Asset Management provides SOFAZ with direct insight into regional markets, reliable partners, and access to new investment opportunities.
The visit also holds broader strategic significance for Azerbaijan. The growing role of the Middle Corridor in strengthening ties between Asia and Europe further elevates the importance of Azerbaijan’s strategic position between the two regions. Furthermore, the expansion of SOFAZ’s cooperation with leading Asian investment institutions complements this physical connectivity with financial linkages, binding Azerbaijan more closely to Asia in both geographical and economic terms.
In an interview with Trend, Merlissa Trisno, Director of Funds and Capital Partnerships at the Indonesia Investment Authority (INA), highlighted SOFAZ's strategic role as one of the founding sovereign investors in the Galaxy Orientis China-ASEAN Investment Platform (CAIP).
"The State Oil Fund of Azerbaijan plays an important role as one of the platform's founding sovereign investors. Its participation demonstrates the shared commitment of three sovereign wealth funds to support long-term investment and economic cooperation along one of the world's fastest-growing development corridors," Trisno said.
She said CAIP brings together the financial resources, institutional expertise and global networks of the China Investment Corporation (CIC), the Indonesia Investment Authority (INA) and SOFAZ to finance high-quality investment projects across the region.
"The platform aims to contribute to regional development by combining long-term capital, institutional expertise and global networks to support high-quality investment opportunities," she said.
Trisno added that the platform has secured approximately $520 million in initial funding and is targeting a total of $1 billion, with plans to attract additional institutional investors in the future.
"We believe the platform will, over time, provide a strong foundation for expanding economic and investment cooperation among Indonesia, China, ASEAN countries, Azerbaijan and other partners," the INA official said.
Meanwhile, the strategic importance of SOFAZ's participation in international investment platforms is also noteworthy. CGS International Securities, the managing partner of the Galaxy Orientis China-ASEAN Investment Platform (CAIP), said that the Fund adds significant institutional value to the platform.
"SOFAZ brings to the CAIP a particular institutional perspective. The fund has experience deploying long-horizon sovereign capital across multiple geopolitical environments, and a sophisticated approach to portfolio construction shaped by decades of stewarding hydrocarbon-driven wealth," Group Head of Asset Management, CGS International Securities, James Ong, said in an interview with Trend.
According to him, at the same time, SOFAZ benefits from sitting alongside CIC and INA — both institutions with mature private-investment operations in Asia — and from access to the institutional learning that comes from operating within a multi-sovereign architecture.
"Sovereign collaboration of this kind is increasingly recognized as a model that benefits every participating fund, not a one-directional capital flow," Ong emphasized.
