Dec. 23
Minister: Azerbaijan to enter TOP-50 countries for GDP volume
Azerbaijan is to enter the TOP-50 countries for GDP volume within the next five years, Azerbaijani Finance Minister Samir Sharifov said in Baku speaking at the conference entitled 'Azerbaijan 2013-2018:Towards new targets' organized by the ruling New Azerbaijan Party.
"If in 2003 Azerbaijan ranked 108th for GDP volume and 154th for GDP per capita, in 2012 it reached to 69th and 78th respectively," the minister said.
Azerbaijan's GDP increased by 3.4 times, GDP in the non-oil sector by 2.7 times and GDP per capita by three times in past 10 years, according to the minister.
"In accordance to the development concept 'Azerbaijan-2020: Outlook for the future', it is planned to double the GDP per capita," Sharifov said.
Conference on outcomes of state program on socio-economic development of Baku and surrounding small districts held
President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev has presided over a conference to deal with the outcomes of the state program on "socio-economic development of Baku and its surrounding small districts in 2011-2013".
President Ilham Aliyev then gave an introductory speech at the conference.
Dec. 24
Some 500 national standards to be prepared in Azerbaijan in 2014
About 500 national standards will be prepared in Azerbaijan in 2014, director of the Azerbaijan Standardization and Certification Institute Sabig Abdullayev said at the international workshop "Integrated Management Systems", organized by the Azerbaijani State Committee for Standardization, Metrology and Patents and the British Standards Institution BSI.
"Around 50 standards were used in various fields, including tourism, food, ICT in the country during a year," Abdullayev said.
Proposals prepared for specializing Azerbaijani districts in agricultural production
The proposals on specializing economic and administrative districts of Azerbaijan in agricultural production have been prepared, director of the Scientific Research Institute on Economic Reforms of Azerbaijani Economy and Industry Ministry, Vilayat Valiyev said.
A round table discussion, under the theme "Specialization of Azerbaijan's economic and administrative districts in agricultural production - the need and effectiveness" was held.
He also noted that the institute's experts studied the specialization level of districts and agricultural production, determined priorities for development of agriculture in districts and prepared a report on 200 kinds of agricultural products and services.
Dec. 27
Thirteen Azerbaijani banks to terminate Golden Crown transfer system
Thirteen Azerbaijani banks will stop rendering Golden Crown money transfer services as from January 15, 2014, the banking market said.
'This decision was made by banks due to the low profitability of transactions conducted in the system and the ineffectiveness of cooperation with the company', the report said. 'The long negotiations with the system initiated by a group of banks which continued throughout the year have unfortunately not yielded positive results. The banks were forced to take a decision to terminate the service via this system'.
According to the report, the International Bank of Azerbaijan, Xalq Bank, Kapital Bank, Bank Standard, Bank Technique, Bank Respublika, Unibank, DemirBank, Muganbank, Bank of Baku, AtaBank , AccessBank and Bank of Azerbaijan are also terminating operations with this system.