News in brief

INT'L PASSPORTS TO BE ISSUED NOT ONLY IN BAKU

A system of personalization of foreign passports is to be introduced shortly following the installation of latest computer equipment. This will make it possible for passports to be issued not only in Baku but also elsewhere in the country.

All passport personalization stations will be hooked to the central one, based at the Visa Registration Department under the Ministry for Internal Affairs.

"Canadian banknote" company has already supplied equipment totaling $5.08 million for the purpose.

LEGAL AID AGREEMENTS TO BE SIGNED

The Azerbaijan government has prepared draft agreements on legal aid to be concluded with the USA, Belorussia and Turkmenistan, Ministry of Justice told Azernews Friday. Copies of the drafts have been sent to justice ministries of the countries for approval.

Azerbaijan has signed such agreements with Russia, Iran, Turkey, Israel and Ukraine.

AZERONLINE SUIT SUSTAINED

The Economic Court has considered the suit of "Azeronline" joint venture against the "TeleRadio" production unit and ruled in favor of the former.

"Azeronline" had filed the suit after "TeleRadio" blocked its international channels on December 6, thus infringing upon the agreement signed. On January 16, the Economic Court forbade the plaintiff to block the joint venture's channels until the court passes a final resolution and to engage in any activities that may hurt the quality of the JV's work, according to the "Azeronline" press-service.

"Azeronline" was set up by "Azercell" JV and Turkish "Centur", has invested $2 million in the business and is providing Internet-services in most of Azerbaijan's provinces.

ALLOCATION OF FUEL TO FARMERS UNDER CONSIDERATION

The Cabinet of Ministers is currently considering draft resolution on allocating fuel to farmers on advantageous terms in 2001.

In early January, an expert government commission traveled to Ujar, Kurdamir and some other provinces to inspect the course of distribution of advantageous fuel to farmers.

Farmer fuel benefits are necessary both for agricultural development and for maintaining stable prices in the country. Thus, the cost value of agricultural produce has halved thanks to the benefits.

It is remembered that peasant farms are exempt of all taxes except the land tax.

NEW CASPIAN POLLUTION FACTS DISCOVERED

Caspian Ecological Program (CEP) has released new facts pertaining to pollution of the sea and the rivers flowing into it. In consequence of the rising sea level, half of Kazakhstan's 300 wells have already been flooded, with the same lot in store for the remaining ones.

No better is the situation in north Caspian - in the Russian sector. Due to a weak ecological control and obsolescence of equipment, more than 400,000 tons of oil was lost in 2000 alone. Besides, the most toxic metal, beryllium, has been found in the Samur river waters.

GRAIN QUALITY TO BE DEFINED BY DEVICES

Up-to-date laboratory devices have been recently brought to Azerbaijan from Moscow to exactly and operatively define key quality indicators of grain, "AzerDovlatStandard" told AssA-Irada Tuesday.

The devices were obtained following an agreement between the Azerbaijan State Standardization Center and Metrology (AzerDovlatStandard) and Moscow State Scientific Institution for grain and grain products.

The equipment was purchased at the expenses of "AzerDovlatStandard".

GDP PER CAPITA $618.6

In 2000, GDP made up 21,940,000,000,000 manats, or 11.4% over 1999. GDP per capita has grown by 10.5% to 2,767,800 manats, or $618.6.

25.4% of GDP was formed in industry, 15.5% in transport and communications, 18% in agriculture, 6.6% in trade and 4.7% in construction.

ADVANTAGEOUS CREDITS TO AID ENTREPRENEURS

The Cabinet of Ministers is expected to adopt two business projects envisioning advantageous crediting from the state budget. The crediting will target small enterprises engaged in processing agricultural produce and producing construction materials. The national fund for small and medium enterprise development under the state committee for anti-monopoly policy and support for entrepreneurship has allocated 15 million manats for the purpose. A total of 13 billion will be allotted in 2001.

TWO THIRDS OF ENTREPRENEURS ENGAGED IN TRADE

As of early January 2001, small enterprises (a total of 52,121) make up 91% of all enterprises active in Azerbaijan. Most of these, 32% and 16% respectively, are trading and agricultural enterprises. Then come enterprises dealing with real estate transactions, leasing and commercial activities (12%), construction (7.8%), and processing of agricultural products (7.4%).

The number of private entrepreneurs paying tax had made up 86,000 people as of January 1, 2001, a little over last year. 72.1% of them are engaged in trade and 9.1% in transport.

Independent experts say the number of private entrepreneurs evading not paying tax is much higher than that of tax-payers.

$288 MILLION SOLD IN 2000

In 2000, $186 million was sold at the Baku Inter-bank Currency Exchange and $102 million was sold at the Organized Inter-bank Currency Market. Thus, a total of $288 million for a total amount of 1.3 trillion manats was sold by the two exchanges, or 5.7% of last year's GDP.

An average exchange rate of a US dollar made up 4,497 manats with highest circulation registered in May ($24.58 million), October ($21.67 million) and November ($24 million) and lowest in December ($14.34 million). 246 trading sessions were registered last year.

BANKING SYSTEM DEVELOPING SLOWLY

Total charter fund of all banks as of December 1, 2000 made up 686 billion manats, or 3% of last year's GDP, which is an illustration of an extreme weakness of the banking system.

According to the Ministry of Economics, as of December 1, 2000, the National Bank had issued licenses to 59 banks, 57 banks have been permitted to engage in foreign currency transactions. These banks have 194 affiliates, including outside Azerbaijan - "Caucasus Development Bank" in Tbilisi and the International Bank in Moscow.

NUMBER OF LEGAL ENTITIES UP

Despite a slight expansion of economic entities in 1999 (liquidation of small enterprises, conversion of previously independent subsidiaries into branches), as of January 1, 2001, the number of legal entities had risen 5.6% to 2000 to 57,098. Also in evidence is the increase in the number of legal entities in all spheres excluding agriculture, hunting, timber industry, real estate and leasing activities, where they decreased 17%-34%.

AUDIT TO PRECEDE IBA PRIVATIZATION

The EBRD has forwarded the schedule of joint work to the International Bank of Azerbaijan (IBA) relating to the takeover of 20% of IBA by the EBRD. The document covers the issues of EBRD involvement in the IBA in the capacity of shareholder and representative in the Board of Directors.

In mid-February, Price Waterhouse Coopers will launch an audit of the IBA and forward the results to the EBRD, while talks between the two banks may start in March. The takeover itself is expected in April-May at best.

CSC FINISHES 2000 ON SUCCESSFUL NOTE

Caspian Shipping Company (CSC) has completed the year 2000 on a successful note, having transported 8,799,000 tons of consignments, or 115.6% of the plan. 6,147,000 tons of cargoes were transported by tankers, 1,331,000 by the dry cargo fleet and 1,301,000 by ferry-boats.

11,900 people used the CEC passenger transport services in 2000, according to the company press-service.

DEBT TO IRAN TO BE REPAID WITHIN 4 YEARS

President Aliyev decreed last Wednesday to allocate $2.7 million from a SOCAR account each quarter for a total of 4 years in repaying the "AzerEnergy" arrears for electrical energy supplies to the Nakhchivan AR. A total of $44.3 million will be repaid over this period.

"AzerEnergy" has been instructed to transfer the means arriving at its account from SOCAR to Iranian "Tevanir" since the first quarter of 2001.

AGREEMENT ON KURA AND ARAZ TO BE SIGNED

Parliamentarians, ministers for ecology, South Caucasus NGOs, UN, USAID have attended a forum in Tbilisi, "Regional cooperation in protecting the Kura-Araz basin", according to the director of "Ecolex-Azerbaijan" NGO Samir Isayev.

In his words, a decision was made to set up a system of monitoring in the river basin and a working group to prepare an agreement on Kura-Araz. The agreement will be prepared at the level of NGOs, because the governments of Azerbaijan and Armenia cannot yet sign any official documents for known reasons.

Attending the forum on behalf of Azerbaijan were MP Asya Manafova and representatives of the state committee on ecology.

Azernews

AssA-Irada