Loans to Azerbaijani economy up by  6.6 per cent * Total amount of loans to the Azerbaijani economy have constituted AZM2,592.9bn as of January 1, 2003, exceeding the 2002 figure by 6.6 per cent. Short-term and long-term loans have made up AZM1,861.8bn, or 71.8 per cent, and AZM731.2bn, or 28.2 per cent, respectively. The National Bank of Azerbaijan has told AssA-Irada that state-run banks have released credits worth AZM1,240.7bn, while private banks and non-profit credit organizations -AZM1,013...... полностью

First pipe for BTC construction arrives in Baku * BP said that the first joints of pipe for the construction of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan Main Export Pipeline were delivered to Baku from the Georgian Black Sea port of Poti on January 22. The first shipment of 240 joints of pipe was brought by railway from Poti by the German company KUHNE & NAGLE, which is a freight-forwarding subcontractor for the Azerbaijan section of the pipeline. * This first shipment of the pipe was brought to Poti on the 14th...... полностью

* Rally urges authorities to allow former speaker return home * The Azerbaijani Democratic Party (ADP) held a rally outside the Qalaba cinema Saturday. Thousands of people attended the rally demanded the former speaker, exile Rasul Quliyev, the ADP chairman, be allowed to return to the country, the preventive punishment and lawsuit against him be repealed, incumbent President Heydar Aliyev resign and free and just elections be held. * Rasul Quliyev is accused of participation in coup attempt an...... полностью

Aliyev for informal CIS summit * Azerbaijani President Heydar Aliyev left for Kiev on January 28 to attend an informal CIS summit initiated by Russian and Ukrainian presidents. * Aliyev was invited to the Summit by CIS executive secretary Yuri Yarov during his recent visit to Baku. * The summit will center on economic issues, including the setting up of free trade zones, Aliyev told  journalists at the Bina airport of Baku. * Briefing * Answering journalists' questions, the Azerbaijani Presiden...... полностью

US declares Upper Qarabag as uncontrolled zone * Upper Qarabag was declared as uncontrolled zone at a report submitted to the White House by the US State Department intelligence commission on January 24. Henceforth, Upper Qarabag will be named decontrolled zone in official documents of the US State Department. * This information has been confirmed by the US embassy in Baku. * Decontrolled zone terms such areas as are home to international terrorist organizations and drug traffickers, and nuclear...... полностью

Once again the Aberdeen and Grampian Chamber of Commerce sent a mission to Azerbaijan. The British delegation led by Reith Still from the Aberdeen and Grampian Chamber of Commerce arrived in Baku on Monday on a working visit. The mission of eleven companies, mainly involved in the energy sector, is going to study the opportunities of establishing cooperation in oil and gas field. Reith Still is a regular visitor to Baku and this year he led a group of companies, most of which are new to Azerb...... полностью

Middle East Peace Summit was held in Istanbul, Turkey on January 23 involving foreign ministers of six Middle Eastern countries Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Syria, Jordan and Iran. They discussed the Iraqi problem at the summit that lasted some 13 hours. The summit adopted a declaration urging Iraq to comply with all UN resolutions and fully cooperate with UN weapons inspectors. It is interesting that the declaration sends some ulterior messages to the US and Israel as the former is indirectly c...... полностью

A session of the Council of Europe (CoE) in Strasbourg has discussed Azerbaijan and Armenia's performance of their commitments to peaceful regulation of the Qarabag conflict. Participating in the session were CoE Secretary General Walter Shvimmer, permanent representatives of the member states, OSCE Minisk Group co-chairmen, and Azerbaijani and Armenian presidents' special envoys for the settlement of the Qarabag conflict Araz Azimov and Tatul Markaryan. At their own initiative, the OSCE Minsk ...... полностью

Martinez Kassan, the co-rapporteur on Azerbaijan of the CE Parliamentary Assembly’s (PACE) monitoring committee, held a news conference at the Greek embassy in Baku on Friday. The co-rapporteur expressed his satisfaction with the current visit to Azerbaijan, though he noted some faults. Kassan said he had traveled to the Northern regions of the country, where he had met with ethnic minorities, stressing normal relations between them and the government. Nevertheless, the visitor regretted over th...... полностью

The head of the permanent mission of the Azerbaijani Milli Maclis (parliament) to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), Ilham Aliyev was elected as the PACE Vice-President on January 27. He was also elected as PACE's Bureau member. The election was seen by Azerbaijani public as an important historic event, since Azerbaijani politician occupied a highest ever position in an authoritative international organization. In an interview to local press, Ilham Aliyev considered hi...... полностью

Tube rolling works looks for old glory UK based Targol Investment Ltd. has been announced the winner of a tender for sales of shares in Azerboru tube rolling enterprise announced by the Ministry of Economic Development. The British company, especially noted for part in oil projects, is now to transfer 5bn manat to the state budget, including a deposit of 1bn already paid, and 4.88bn manat to Azerboru, as well as forward 240,000 state privatization vouchers and options to the Azeri Ministry's de...... полностью

Azpetrol wins int'l Quality Award Azeri oil company Azpetrol was conferred the international For Quality Award at the meeting of the 16th International Quality Convention at New York's Marriott Marquise Hotel. Azpetrol has also won the Quality Summit New York 2002 Golden Award. Switzerland imports Azeri oil The State Oil Company of Azerbaijan has exported the scheduled 135 million tons of oil for Clean Core in Switzerland through the Baku-Novorossiysk pipeline this month, according to SOCA...... полностью

President facilitates local businesses The Azeri President decreed Monday to slash the number of licensable businesses, simplify the allocation of licensing and transfer the prerogative to the Ministry of Economic Development. The decree is explained with the fact that the existing licensing process had been hampering the development of entrepreneurship in Azerbaijan, being a lever of pressure and at times a source of bribery for government officials. Currently, license is required for 240 bu...... полностью

Ecological hot line at work The Ministry for Ecology and Natural Resources has set up a hot line in a move to expand environmental relations with the public and enterprises and acquire regular ecological updates. The round-the-clock service will be getting data on ecological irregularities and documenting them in a special book. The anonymity of those who will inform serious ecological breaches at 39-18-63 and 38-13-35 is guaranteed if necessary. Ecology workshop over The workshop "The en...... полностью

President to help education Azeri President Aliyev is expected to move proposals soon for construction of new schools and improvement of logistics, the President has said. He was speaking to a ceremony at school #175 in Suraxani district of Baku Monday to mark the beginning of a new school year. "The education vote is 22 percent of the state budget, with allocations from other financial sources in stock", the President has promised. Touching upon the wages of education workers, President Al...... полностью

Leader of the New Musavat party Hafiz Haciyev, known for his blistering criticism of the opposition, told a news conference Monday that "the US was interested in making a coup d'etat in Azerbaijan. He also alleged that the US National Democracy Institute had allocated a million dollars, the German Naumov Foundation 500,000 and Iran 234,000 dollars to the opposition on the 24 August referendum. Saying he had received the information from "reliable sources", Haciyev warned they would picket the ...... полностью

Major opposition parties have opted to unite in the common front against the authorities and hold a rally-march to protest the referendum results. The opposition will march from the 20 January underground station to the former Qabala cinema in Baku from 16:00 till 18:00 on 14 September in what observers predict will be a larger protest. “Apart from trying to have the results of the referendum voided, we will also work to achieve free and fair presidential elections”, Musavat leader Isa Qambar ...... полностью

A number of international organizations in Baku have voiced concerns over alleged ballot fraud in the 24 August referendum that eventually amended the Constitution. The accusations followed the recent US State Department statement pointing to “widespread irregularities” in the polling. Press Secretary of the US State Department Bureau for European Affairs Bill Capler has said the observations of the US embassy, law enforcement bodies, international organizations, and opposition parties show ser...... полностью

Last week’s presidential decree on state secrets has caused concerns in both local and international media, with many labeling the act as an endeavor to restrict the freedom of expression and disregard international norms. The leading international human rights group Article 19 has also opposed the decree. What disturbs journalists most in the decree “Regulations for prevention of spread of state secrets in media” dated 24 August is their waiting a week to confirm that the information is not of...... полностью

Indian embassy issues first cultural bulletin The Indian embassy in Azerbaijan has launched a new color bulletin, Indian Culture starting August, with a preface by the Indian ambassador in Baku Dinkar Khullar and news in Azeri and English. The first issue introduces arts and culture news from India, undertakings held by the embassy and its activities, the first visit of the renowned Indian film star and director Rajh Kapur to Baku in 1956, the festival of Indian films in Azerbaijan in 2001, as ...... полностью

SOCAR announces tender for oil pipes SOCAR has announced a three-lot tender for purchase of pipes for oil industry, as it intends to buy over 3,000 tons of protective pipes with external diameter of 140mm to 508mm, 3,360 tons of pumping compressor pipes with external diameter of 48.3mm to 114.3mm and 831 tons of drilling pipes with external diameter of 73mm to 140mm. The tender will prefer bids for better price, delivery time and payment that are to be submitted before 15 October. The bidders ...... полностью

Azeri factories for textile show Fourteen Azeri companies, including the sewing factory, Baku shoes factory and Atropaten commercial firm, are expected to take part in the 11th Baltic Textile international trade exhibition, due in Vilnius, Lithuania on 11-15 September. Sewing, weaving, shoes, leather products, raw materials and manufacturing equipment will be demonstrated in the show. A conference on marketing policy and workshops will also be held during the exhibition. New int'l tourist ...... полностью

Time works for Azerbaijan - German ambassador German Ambassador to Azerbaijan Claus Grevlich said in a meeting with Azeri Vice-Premier, chairman of the State Committee on Refugees Ali Hasanov that time works for Azerbaijan, which favoring a negotiated solution is backed by international organizations. The Azeri Vice-Premier thanked the ambassador for the assistance of German Diakoni and the German Technical Cooperation Organization, highly appreciating Germany's fair support for Azerbaijan. T...... полностью

Aliyev's son gets prosperous recognition General Director of Azmedia analytical information agency Fuzuli Qurbanli unveiled the outcomes of a public opinion poll "A new political leader in Azerbaijan and image making" among 300 respondents, 60 percent men and 40 percent women, in a news conference Friday. In the survey, Turkish Vice-Premier Devlet Bahcecli has polled 20.3 percent of the votes as a foreign policy maker and President Aliyev was recognized the best Azeri politician, while Musavat ...... полностью

Leaders of the Musavat party Isa Qambar, the Party for National Independence of Azerbaijan Etibar Mammadov, the Popular Front Party reformers Ali Karimov, and secretary general of the Democratic Party Sardar Calaloglu said in a news conference at the Hyatt Park Hotel Monday that "even 14 percent of the vote eligible hadn't been to the 24 August referendum". The politicians alleged that "voters were cracked down by both police and civilians, one person voted in many election precincts, observers...... полностью

The US State Department expressed concerns over "widespread irregularities" in the 24 August constitutional referendum in Azerbaijan Monday. In a daily news briefing, State Department Spokesman Richard Boucher said "we are very concerned that this referendum did very little to advance democratization or to lay the groundwork for presidential elections in the fall of 2003 that can meet international standards". "Based on what we've heard from the US Embassy and other international observers, as...... полностью

Onshore oil production down SOCAR'S all onshore oil and gas-producing units have reduced oil production in January-July by 6.5 percent to last year. However, the target was over-fulfilled, as Balaxanineft has increased output by 12.5 percent over the plan. The July plan was fulfilled by all onshore units. JVs up oil output Oil and gas producing joint ventures increased oil production over the past seven months to last year, while Qarasu JV decreased the output by 5.5 percent. 435,000 tons...... полностью

Baku-Ceyhan construction to start The ceremony to lay the foundation of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan main export pipeline designed to take Caspian hydrocarbons to international markets is due on 18 September at the onshore Sangachal terminal 42km south of Baku. Attending the ceremony will be Azeri, Georgian and Turkish Presidents, as well as US special negotiator for Caspian diplomacy Steven Mann. Also participating will be executives of the BTC shareholders, Turkish Botas and Georgian GIOC. The ...... полностью

The Azeri President decreed in late June to announce a nationwide polling on 24 August to bring in 24 amendments to the Constitution on the state budget, elections, court of appeals, amnesty, etc. Key changes are transference of the President's powers to the Premier, but not the Speaker, in case he is unable or absent to rule, reduction in vote quorum for presidential elections and abolishment of the non-constituency election system. Azernews presents referendum update in this new section. ...... полностью

Presidents committed to ceasefire, private peace talks While Armenian defense chief turns out uncompromising Azeri and Armenian Presidents Aliyev and Kocharian met face-to-face in the Azeri enclave of Naxcivan last Wednesday following recent military clashes that led to human losses. The Presidents have agreed to stick to the ceasefire and continue peace talks in this format. They also expressed willingness to stimulate the activities of the OSCE Minsk Group. The two met for four hours a...... полностью