Baku, Azerbaijan, March 1
By Leman Zeynalova – Trend:
In the 2018 budget-year, Azerbaijan’s state oil fund SOFAZ is projected to continue financing four strategic programs, a source in SOFAZ told Trend and Azernews.
Out of them two are infrastructural: the Samur-Absheron irrigation system reconstruction project and the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars new railway project, said the source.
The other two projects reflect social responsibility: measures related to social and settlement issues of refugees and internally displaced people; and the “State Program on Education of the Azerbaijani youth abroad in 2007-2015”, added the source.
Overall, expenditures on all the four projects are equal to 482.3 million manats, below 5 percent of the Fund’s overall expenditures, noted the representative of SOFAZ.
“In order to preserve the SOFAZ’s incomes, the use of alternative funding sources has been increasing. For example, since 2017 SOFAZ has not been contributing to the South Gas Corridor which is now financed via debt instruments,” said the source.
Based on SOFAZ's regulations, its funds may be used for construction and reconstruction of strategically important infrastructure facilities, as well as solving important national problems.
The main goals of the State Oil Fund include: accumulation of resources and placement of the Fund's assets abroad in order to minimize the negative effect on the economy, the prevention of "Dutch disease" to some extent, promotion of resource accumulation for future generations, and support of current social and economic processes in Azerbaijan.
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