Azerbaijan, Baku, April 30 /Trend I.Khalilova, A.Taghiyeva/
The first visit of President of the Bank of Commerce and the Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) - ECOBANK Hussein Gazavi will begin on Tuesday, the bank told Trend on Monday.
Unofficial visit of Gazavi will last three days. The bank did not specify what issues will be discussed during the visit.
The Bank expressed its formal consent to the transfer of three percent equity in the capital of ECOBANK to Azerbaijan and the issues of the country's joining as the bank's shareholders will be discussed in the frame of the visit.
In the primary stage Azerbaijan proposes to be a shareholder with 3 percent share, and the share of the country can also be expanded along with the capital of ECOBANK," the government of the country said. "The proposal of Azerbaijan was approved by the Bank."
Azerbaijan is planned to allocate 9.7 million SDR (exchange rate on April 30 is 1,550550 USD/SDR) to pay its share in the capital of the Bank. Some 2.5 million manat (about $3.2 million) has already been laid for this purpose.
"We would like Azerbaijan to be a shareholder of ECOBANK with greater equity and offered the package at 10-12 percent" Deputy Director of Department for foreign relations Tuncay Melektosun told Trend previously.
The membership of 10 countries is expected in the bank.
"The official request to join the shareholders of the bank came from Azerbaijan and Afghanistan," Melektosun said.
The Bank for Development and Trade of the Economic Cooperation Organization with an authorized capital of 300 million SDR (about $458.73 million) and an announced capital of one billion SDR (about $1.529 billion) was founded by Iran, Pakistan and Turkey in 2005. The bank's headquarters is in Istanbul.
One ECO-unit corresponds to one SDR.
The minimum fee for the stake is 2 million ECO-units (about $3.058 million), which is 0.34 percent of total capital, while the maximum allowable contribution for the purchase of 15 percent will be 87 million ECO-units (about $133.031 million).
In this case, he said, three bank's founders - Iran, Pakistan and Turkey - will have equal shares of 17.24 percent, or 100 million ECO-units (about $152.91 million), so that their total volume of shares formed the majority.
"With a 15 percent equity participation, the country has the right to appoint a representative to the board of directors of the bank. Participants having a share of less than 15 percent, may nominate a common representative," Mr Melektosun said earlier.
The Central Bank or the relevant ministry represent member-countries in the ECO-Bank.
Organization for Economic Cooperation was founded by Iran, Pakistan and Turkey in 1985. In 1993 the organization was granted observer status at the UN, and a year later - in the Organization of the Islamic conference. IX summit of the organization, whose members are Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Turkey and Turkmenistan was held in May 2006 in Baku, and the X Summit - last year in Tehran.