Azerbaijan, Baku, 16 August / Trend corr. I.Alizade/ The NGO State Assistance Council attached to the Azerbaijani President decided to allocate funds from the state budget to 191 NGOs in 2008.
"A total of 191 NGOs, engaged in different fields, will receive AZN 1.2mln," Azay Guliyev, the chairman of the Council, said at a ceremony dedicated to financial assistance to NGOs. There are over 2,000 NGOs in Azerbaijan.
According to Guliyev, from 12 June to 2 July, 361 projects on 15 priority directions were submitted to the Council, including 290 Baku-based NGOs and 71 regional NGOs "After the preliminary examination by the Council's secretariat, 24 projects were returned for the lack of correspondence to rules," he said.
The minimum size of financial aid, which was allocated to the NGOs, amounted to AZN 2,000 and maximum to AZN 12,000.
According to the Council, all conditions were created for the NGOs to submit their projects. Guliyev believes implementation of the projects financed from the state budget will entail positive social changes.
The state cannot stand aside from the development process of NGOs, Ali Hasanov, the head of the Social and Political Department at the Azerbaijani Presidential Administration, said.
"Democratic society cannot develop without political parties, NGOs and independent media institutions. Therefore, development of these fields is in the centre of the Azerbaijani State's attention," he said.
Hasanov stressed that earlier the State treated NGOs as its opponents. At present, this situation has been changed and the authorities treat NGOs as their supporters.
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