Azerbaijan, Baku / Trend corr I. Khalilova / In September-October, the European Commission will announce a tender on three projects within the framework of a twining program envisaged for Azerbaijan in the national action plan of TACIS (Technical Aid to CIS) for the 2006 financial year, the Executive Director of the European Commission's Coordinating Bureau on Technical Assistance Programs (TACIS) to Azerbaijan, Rufat Mammadov, reported.
"Technical tasks were developed only on three of the six projects envisaged in the action plan. They were submitted to the European Commission. Experts will be sent to Azerbaijan for designing the tasks on the remaining projects," Mammadov said.
Technical tasks were developed on improvement of standardization system (for Standardization, Metrology, and Patent Agency), expertise of quality of foodstuffs and seafood (for State Service on Control over the Consumer Market at the Economic Development Market), and implementation of the memorandum on cooperation in the energy sector signed between Azerbaijan and the European Commission (for the Industry and Energy Ministry). Moreover, technical assistance to the Azerbaijani Parliament in training of staff and improvement of parliament's potential in development of legislation, to the State Commission on Corruption Enforcement, in improvement of the potential of the State Committee on State Property Management is also envisaged.
The total budget of the twining program comprises €6.5mln, with €0.5mln intended for maintenance of the project office of the program. The term for implementation of each project will make up to twelve to eighteen months at the cost of €1mln.
The total budget of Tacis for Azerbaijan for 2006 is €22mln.