News digest

FRONTIER-GUARD COMMANDER REPLACED

President Heydar Aliyev has resolved to dismiss Abbasali Novruzov from the position of deputy minister for national security and commander of the frontier guard and appoint Elchin Guliyev to the positions.

Prior to this appointment, E. Guliyev was commander of a frontier guard unit.

AUSTRIAN PRESIDENT, SPEAKER EXPECTED ON VISIT

President Aliyev has invited his Austrian counterpart to visit Azerbaijan and the invitation has been accepted. Besides, Austrian parliament speaker is expected on a visit to Baku, but exact timing of the visits has not been ascertained yet, Austrian ambassador Mrs. Heiden Maria Guhrer told a meeting of the Azeri-Austrian parliamentary working group Friday.

Azeri MPs voiced their appreciation to Austria for the support in Azerbaijan's admission to the COE and expressed a hope that Austria would take an impartial stance regarding the Armenian-Azerbaijan conflict.

Amb. Guhrer said Austria had encountered certain problems for having supported Azerbaijan, but declined to specify what that entailed. She reiterated her country's desire to continue backing Azerbaijan within the OSCE framework.

AMBASSADOR TO ROMANIA APPOINTED

Eldar Hasanov has been appointed as Azerbaijan's first ambassador to Romania. He had been Azerbaijan's Prosecutor General before.

GOV'T FORWARDS NEW PROPOSALS TO WB

Since the talks with the French bank "Credi Agricol" have been suspended, the Azerbaijan government has forwarded new proposals to the WB on selecting an agent bank within the "Crediting and agricultural development in Azerbaijan" project.

Deputy head of the Agency for private sector development in agriculture Famil Mehdiyev told Azernews Monday that a new tender is not ruled out (the previous tender was won by "Credi Agricol").

According to Mr. Mehdiyev, the project is valued at $33.6 million, $15 million of which will be spent on crediting farms.

Besides banking services, "Credi Agricol" sought to provide both information and consultation services, which, however, were not envisioned by the tender. Therefore, the talks were suspended.

BRITISH COMPANY TO PRINT LONG-TERM LOANS

The tender announced by Finance Ministry for the printing of long-term state loans has been completed. A source from the Ministry told Azernews Monday that British "De La Rue" has won the tender.

Besides the British company, participating in the tender were Ukrainian Printing Enterprise and German ZZK. "De La Rue" proposed to print 1.5 million loans for $105,000, the Ukrainian company for $157,000 and ZZK for $126,000.

"De La Rue" has agreed to print the loans within 45 days.

COCA-COLA HEAD OFFICE MOVES FROM TBILISI TO BAKU

Since April 2, regional Coca-Cola operations in Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkmenistan have been managed from Baku, Coca-Cola's Eurasian division said Tuesday. The Baku office of the company confirmed the report, saying the operations would be supervised by senior manager Ilgar Rustamov.

Coca Cola has been in Azerbaijan for 5 years, having invested some $45 million to date.

APARTMENT BUILDING FOR THE HANDICAPPED

The Ministry of Labor and Social Security of the Population has announced a tender for construction of a 4-storey 36-apartment building in the Khatai district of Baku for the families of the Garabagh war martyrs and handicapped.

Tender bids can be submitted before May 7. Participation fee is AZM3million with performance bond of 2% of the cost of the tender bid required. Results of the tender will be finalized on May 8.

Azernews

AzadInform