Azerbaijan, Baku, Sept. 29 / Trend I.Khalilova /
The next meeting of the Azerbaijani-American Commission on Economic Cooperation has been delayed pending the appointment of the U.S. co-chair to the commission, Azerbaijani Finance Minister Samir Sharifov said. The commission's most recent meeting was held two years ago.
"The commission is headed by the finance minister from the Azerbaijani side and from the U.S., the functions were formerly assigned to Deputy Secretary of State Daniel Sullivan. But his credentials have expired and the new American co-chairman has not been appointed," Sharifov said.
Sharifov said it will be possible to expect an increase in the activity of the commission on after the appointment of a new U.S. co-chair.
The main themes of the previous and second meeting of the commission were macro-economic policies and development of Azerbaijan's trade and investment environment, economic reforms and expansion of areas for bilateral economic development.
Currently, the U.S. Agency for Trade and Development (USTDA) is funding a number of technical assistance projects in Azerbaijan. The U.S. wants Azerbaijan to co-finance some of these project.
Earlier, the coordinator of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) for Azerbaijan, Scott Taylor, spoke about the preparation for co-financing four projects in the following areas: trade and investment; fiscal reforms; competition in the private sector; and financial stabilization.
The first meeting of the Azerbaijani-American Commission on Economic Partnership was held on Feb. 7, 2007 in Baku. It was preceded by 10 meetings of the Joint Working Group on Economic Cooperation (two such meetings were held annually).
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