Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 28
By Maksim Tsurkov – Trend:
Azerbaijan has allocated $630.2 million for construction of the Georgian section of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars (BTK) railway as of Jan. 1, 2017 since Azerbaijan’s State Oil Fund (SOFAZ) started financing the project, reads a message on SOFAZ website.
In accordance with the agreement between Azerbaijani and Georgian governments, the funds have been transferred to Marabda-Kartsakhi Railway LLC through the International Bank of Azerbaijan.
Marabda-Kartsakhi Railway LLC was created for designing, construction, rehabilitation, reconstruction and operation of the railway section running from Marabda to the border with Turkey and relevant infrastructure projects.
SOFAZ allocated $41.9 million for the project’s implementation in 2016.
The Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway is being constructed based on the Azerbaijan-Georgia-Turkey intergovernmental agreement.
The railway is planned to be commissioned in the second half of 2017.
Azerbaijan allocated a loan of $775 million for construction of the railway’s Georgian section. SOFAZ finances the project in accordance with the Azerbaijani president's Decree on Implementation of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars Project Activities, dated Feb. 21, 2007.
SOFAZ was established in 1999 with assets of $271 million.
Based on SOFAZ’s regulations, its funds may be used for construction and reconstruction of strategically important infrastructure facilities, as well as solving important national problems.
The main goals of the State Oil Fund are accumulation of resources and placement of the Fund’s assets abroad in order to minimize the negative effect on the economy, prevention of "Dutch disease" to some extent, promotion of resource accumulation for future generations, and supporting current social and economic processes in Azerbaijan.
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