Representatives of Azerbaijan, Iran and Russia gathered in Baku on Tuesday to explore ways of speeding up the North-South transport corridor project – a major route to link Asia and Europe that has been delayed in the past years. An Iranian official has offered establishing an international consortium – a key legal aspect of the project realization which is high on agenda of the trilateral taskforce. “This would speed up commissioning of the route earmarked to link the railway networks of Ch...... полностью

The BP-operated Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil export pipeline (BTC) lifted at the weekend the 500th cargo of oil transported from the Sangachal terminal near Baku across Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey to Ceyhan. The 500th tanker – the St Helen, arrived at the Turkish Mediterranean port on Saturday morning and departed on the same day, June 14. The tanker took on board 630,000 barrels of crude oil belonging to Azerbaijan’s state oil company SOCAR. The oil, which comes from the Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli (...... полностью

The United States has requested that the Azerbaijani government launch gas production from deeper layers of available fields, a senior US official says. The US Department of State Eurasian Energy Diplomacy Coordinator, Steven Mann, said Washington was looking to increase output during Phase 2 of developing the gas-condensate field Shahdaniz in the Azerbaijan sector of the Caspian Sea, in an effort to eliminate European reliance on Russian supplies. The State Department official said the feasi...... полностью

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev received on Tuesday Saudi Minister for Information and Culture Iyad Madani. President Aliyev stressed the successful development of relations between the two countries as well as the importance of cooperation in the field of culture. He said that holding the Days of Saudi Culture in Azerbaijan would play an important role in the expansion of bilateral cultural relations and comprehensively inform the public about the history and culture of Saudi Arabia. M...... полностью

The number of young smokers in Azerbaijan has increased in 2008, a recent study revealed. Irada Yagubova, head of the ELS Independent Research Center, which conducted the survey in six higher and 14 secondary schools, said 34 per cent of the 800 students said they smoked. The figure among male students has risen from 39 per cent in 2007 to 46 per cent, while the number of female smokers - from 8 to 17 per cent. 52 per cent of those polled said they were exposed to cigarette smoke the...... полностью

Azerbaijan will cooperate with Oman and the United Arab Emirates in the admission to the World Trade Organization (WTO). The government will sign respective bilateral protocols with each country on May 6, an Economic Development Ministry official said. Adalat Muradov, who acts as secretary of the state commission on WTO admission, said such a document was already signed with Turkey in 2007. He noted that the Azerbaijani government continued bilateral talks on the accession to the group. ...... полностью

The turnover of cargoes among the member states of GUAM - Georgia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan and Moldova – will reach $10 billion in the next five years, the group’s secretary-general says. Valeri Chechelashvili told a news conference Wednesday on the outcomes of the two-day international conference, “Transit opportunities of GUAM countries”, held in Baku that bringing the trade turnover to this level was also possible in the future. The orders for the transportation of consignments among the orga...... полностью

The Azerbaijani government has decided to increase the price of oil envisioned in the projections on the 2008 budget, Finance Minister Samir Sharifov has said. Under the proposed changes, the price may be raised from the current $50 to $70 a barrel, he told a parliamentary commission meeting on Wednesday. “The price in world markets currently exceeds $100. I therefore believe this change should be made,” the minister said. Sharifov said the measure would allow to boost budgetary contr...... полностью

The World Bank has allocated a $300 million loan for the repair of Azerbaijan’s highways. The maturity of the loan allotted under the Highway 2 Project is 40 years, while the grace period is 10 years, the bank said. The project aims to reduce road transport costs and improve access, transit and road safety by upgrading and rehabilitating selected sections of the existing East-West and North-South corridors. The additional financing will be for the upgrading of a remaining 112 km of the hi...... полностью

The Ministry of Labor and Social Security has proposed to increase the amount of unemployment allowance from 24 manats to 60 manats ($72). The ministry intends to submit the proposal to the Cabinet of Ministers shortly. Presently, 2,819 people or 6% of the unemployed people in Azerbaijan, are receiving unemployment benefits.*... читать

A meeting of the Azerbaijani and Greek businessmen will be held in Baku on April 15. The event will be organized by the Greek embassy in Baku. A delegation comprising representatives of eight companies of Greece will visit Baku on April 14-17 to establish trade and economic relations with Azerbaijan, the Greek embassy said. During the visit, the delegation will become familiar with the investment climate and business opportunities in Azerbaijan.*... читать

The Islamic Development Bank (IDB) has allocated a $260,000 grant to the Azerbaijan State Committee on Securities to boost the securities market of the country. The allocation will be used to open the branches of the Committee’s National Depository Center in different regions of the country in view of the fact that part of the joint-stock companies in Azerbaijan are operating outside the capital Baku. The center, which currently has a branch only in the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic, will...... полностью

South Korean representatives are due to visit Azerbaijan on April 21 to mull a project on clearing the oil-polluted areas in the Absheron Peninsula, a wide area encompassing the capital Baku. The announcement was made by Minister of Energy and Industry Natig Aliyev while hosting a Korean delegation headed by the vice-president of the Korean International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) Janh Se-Cheong on Wednesday. An agreement on launching the project is to be signed during a visit by the Korea...... полностью

The number of Turkish citizens working in Azerbaijan has increased. Whereas 629 Turkish nationals came to the country to work in 2006, the figure was 632 in 2007, the Turkish Ministry of Labor and Social Security said. In total, over 142,000 Turkish citizens left for 55 countries over the past two years to work in the construction, catering, trade and other sectors. The number of Turkish nationals, who have attained the right of temporary residence in foreign countries, has reached 3.7 m...... полностью

Azerbaijan is a leader in South Caucasus on global technologies, the World Economic Forum (WEF) said. The country ranked 67th in the group’s report covering 127 countries, surpassing the neighboring republics of Georgia and Armenia, which were rated 91st and 106th respectively. Denmark, Sweden and Switzerland topped the list, while Central Asian state Kazakhstan ranked 71st, a point ahead of Russia. The report aims to determine the factors affecting the development... читать

The prices for housing in Azerbaijan are predicted to grow 25% by the year-end. Those working in the construction sector explain the hike by the 36% increase in the cost of construction materials registered in January-March 2007. Contractors say that the prices for metal fittings and concrete have risen the most of late. The cost of a ton of fittings has increased $400 compared to early March. 987 of the 1,987 buildings commissioned last year were residential buildings. Industry experts say t...... полностью

Azerbaijan was rated 215th among 225 countries on the level of inflation in 2007 by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), despite official figures citing a low consumer price index. The South Caucasus republic ranks beside Central Asian state Uzbekistan and Ethiopia in Africa, according to the Economic Research Center (ERC) that is engaged in studying inflation trends in the country. CIA cited high inflation rate in Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan and Venezuela as well. The highest inflation w...... полностью

The European Union’s (EU) subcommittee held its meeting in Baku on Thursday. The current situation in the energy, transport and environmental sector in Azerbaijan and EU member countries were discussed during the meeting held at the Ministry of Transport. Views on regional cooperation in the transport sector, including issues related to aviation and sea transport were exchanged as well. Azerbaijan joined the European New Neighborhood Policy (ENNP) in July 2004. The program envisions coopera...... полностью

The Azerbaijani government and the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) signed a Memorandum of Understanding on the Action Plan for 2009-2011 in Baku on Monday. The document, inked by Economic Development Minister Heydar Babayev and IDB director for Country Operations Yusuf Khan, covers over 10 projects to be implemented with the bank’s financial assistance in the social, finance, agriculture, transport and energy sectors. Khan said the IDB planned to open a new credit line for a number of bank...... полностью

Athens is interested in creating an energy corridor between Azerbaijan, Turkey, Greece and Italy to take Azerbaijani gas to European markets, Greek Minister of Development Christos Folias has said on a visit to Baku. “Azerbaijan and Greece take the same position in this respect,” Folias told the press after meeting with Minister of Energy and Industry Natig Aliyev. He said Greece was looking to buy 1 billion cubic meters of gas a year from Azerbaijan and that the resource-rich South Caucas...... полностью

The Baku railway police have discovered four kilograms of hashish in the Baku-Moscow train. The drugs smuggled from Iran were impounded from an Azerbaijani citizen who was supposed to take them to Moscow. Parvana Khashalova, 25, a resident of the western Zagatala District, said in her first testimony during the investigation that she had taken the narcotic substance from a person she did not know.*... читать

Azerbaijan will become the first ever purchaser of Russia’s BE-200 amphibious aircraft. The plane manufactured by the Irkutsk scientific production enterprise will be used for fire extinguishing. The BE-200 aircraft has been tested successfully and will be delivered to Azerbaijan in mid-April.*... читать

A group of parliament members from the ruling New Azerbaijan Party (NAP) will tour the frontline on Tuesday on the occasion of the Novruz Holiday, the party’s spokesman said. Huseyn Pashayev told reporters that the delegation led by the NAP Deputy Chairman and Executive Secretary Ali Ahmadov would get familiar with the conditions and combat readiness of servicemen in a military unit. The NAP chaired by Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev was founded in 1992. The first chairman of the party...... полностью

Baku and Ashgabat have settled the long-standing dispute over Azerbaijan’s debt to Turkmenistan for gas supplies from the Central Asian state. A relevant agreement was signed in the Azerbaijani capital on Wednesday. The arrears remained outstanding since the early 1990s. The Turkmen side claimed the debt amounted to $44.8 million, but Azerbaijan argued the real figure was only $18 million. The amount of the arrears was not elaborated at the signing. “The debt issue that had long remained u...... полностью

An Azerbaijani scholar was killed in a fire that took place in the Institute of Information and Technology of the Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences at Wednesday noon. Hajibay Sultanov was suffocated by smoke as a result of the blaze that happened in the Baku office of the Shamakhy Astrophysics Observatory located on the seventh floor of the Institute. The causes of the accident are being investigated. Academician Sultanov, 87, was the Doctor of Physico-mathematical Sciences and the h...... полностью

The United States is establishing special laboratory networks in Azerbaijan to prevent the spread of biological diseases. Such facilities have already been commissioned in the central Saatly and Sabirabad districts, and talks are now underway to set up one in the northern Guba district, the State Veterinary Service official said. “These laboratories will serve to discover, track down and prevent 44 hazardous diseases, including bird flu, tuberculosis and foot-and-mouth disease,” Eldaniz Z...... полностью

Ukraine’s Prime Minister Yuliya Timoshenko will visit Azerbaijan in late March, a Ukrainian parliament member visiting Baku said. Andrey Shkil said that during the visit, Timoshenko would meet with the Azerbaijani authorities to discuss issues of energy cooperation as well as hold consultations on the “White Stream” gas pipeline project. The “White Stream” route, which was proposed by Timoshenko during a meeting with the European Union’s Commission for External Relations Benita Ferrero-Wal...... полностью

Representatives of Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey gathered in Baku Thursday to discuss construction of a major railway to link the three countries. The third meeting of the steering council focused on the work done in 2007 to implement the Baku-Tbilisi-Gars project as well as the budget for building the Marabda-Kartsakh section of the rail line in Georgia. General Director of the Marabda-Kartsakh Railways LLC Ramaz Georchadze said preparations for construction operations in the Georgian te...... полностью

Turkey’s new ambassador to Azerbaijan Hulusi Kilic presented his credentials to Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov on Monday. The Turkish envoy vowed to make contributions to development of diplomatic relations between the two countries. Kilic, who was appointed Ambassador to Azerbaijan on January 24, arrived in Baku on February 29. Prior to his new appointment, Kilic worked as the protocol head of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyib Erdogan. Former Turkish Ambassador Huseyi...... полностью

Jordan’s businessmen are interested in Azerbaijan’s non-oil sector and are ready to implement joint projects, Jordanian Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources Secretary General Farouq Hiari, said in a meeting with Azerbaijani Minister of Industry and Energy Natig Aliyev on Monday. During the meeting, the parties discussed issues on cooperation in the field of oil refining as well as exchanged views on export of the Azerbaijani crude oil to Jordan.*... читать