Baku, Azerbaijan, April 10
By Maksim Tsurkov – Trend:
Azerbaijan is a magnificent country, Deputy Director General of Trend News Agency, Lina Vaitkeviciene said at a meeting with foreign journalists who came to the country to cover the April 11 presidential election.
“I am very happy to be in this country,” she noted. “Before going to the point, I would like to say that I and my family are very happy for the possibility to live in such a beautiful and fully safe country. I am from Lithuania and have been living for almost 3 years here and we feel very comfortable here. It is safe here, there are no prejudices on national or religious grounds, and this is really a country of multiculturalism, where democratic principles prevail, and eastern and western values coexist peacefully and complement each other. This is actually a very beautiful country,” she said.
“My friends, who came to visit Azerbaijan, said they have heard about tremendous developments of the country, but they did not expect to see such beauty. I know, you are here to follow and to write about the presidential election, but I really hope you will have the opportunity to see developments of the country, to taste delicious food, and, of course, to see the beauty of Baku city and the districts,” added Vaitkeviciene.
She informed the guests about the agency’s activities.
The deputy director general said she was amazed by the fact that there are media of such scale in Azerbaijan, news products of which are in demand all over the world.
Trend is a significant achievement of Azerbaijan in the media sphere. The agency is among transnational media outlets, admitted to the supply of information materials to absolutely every authoritative international news aggregator, which in itself is a unique achievement for the media of the former USSR republics.
Speaking about the agency’s activities, Lina Vaitkeviciene noted that Trend provides public news, as well as paid products for its customers.
“We do have 14 specialized newsletters. They are in English and Russian languages and offer an insight view into areas covering such sectors as politics, business, oil and gas, transport and logistics, finance and banking in Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Turkey and others. Our news cover the South Caucasus region, Central Asia, the countries of the Caspian region,” she noted.
“We sell news via the our internet terminal, as well as to customers with whom we conclude contracts directly,” said Vaitkeviciene.
She noted that Trend’s products are bought by such companies as Mitsui Corporation, Lukoil, Petronas, Statoil, Chevron, BP, SOCAR and others.
“Among our clients are well-known consulting companies such as Ernst & Young and Deloitte. At the same time, we can mention the World Bank, International Monetary Fund, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, Islamic Corporation for the Development of the Private Sector and others,” she added.
The meeting was attended by US political scientist Raoul Lowery Contreras, independent journalist living in the US, Nurit Gringer, journalists from Italy, Lello Stelletti and Domenico Letizia, as well as Jason Katz, founder of the strategic communication company Tool Shed Group LLC (US).