May 22
S&P: SOCAR’s ratings unchanged after IBA debt restructuring
Standard & Poor’s Global Ratings said that its corporate credit rating, outlook, and issue ratings on the Azerbaijani state oil company SOCAR (BB/Negative/--) are unchanged following the announcement that one of Azerbaijan's largest banks, International Bank of Azerbaijan (IBA), will restructure its debt. “Our rating on SOCAR remains underpinned by our assessment of an extremely high likelihood of extraordinary support from the government of Azerbaijan,” said the S&P message. “We base our assessment on SOCAR’s critical importance to the hydrocarbon-focused country -- particularly with the large Shah Deniz-2 project, where SOCAR plays a central role, coming on stream next year. Also, we believe that the government is heavily involved in SOCAR's strategy and monitors its debt. However, we acknowledge that the company manages its day-to-day operations autonomously, and there are no state guarantees on the company’s debt.”
Ilham Aliyev receives UAE delegation
President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev received a delegation led by Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation of the United Arab Emirates Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan. The sides exchanged views over cooperation between the two countries in transport, export, import, trade, tourism, infrastructure projects and other areas.
May 23
Draft law on Azerbaijan’s free trade zone ready – minister
The Arab company Dubai Port World (DP World), one of the world’s major port operators, which provides consulting services for creation of the Free Trade Zone (FTZ) in Azerbaijan, has prepared a draft law “On a Free Trade Zone”, said Azerbaijani Economy Minister Shahin Mustafayev during the presentation of a report on the FTZ in the Alat township of Baku’s Garadagh district.
“Last year we signed a contract with the DP World. The company has done a great job, which can be divided into three main areas. This is the preparation of the territory’s general plan, the development of a draft law “On a Free Trade Zone”, as well as feasibility studies of the project,” noted the minister.
May 25
Azerbaijan, Russia sign Main Actions Plan for 2017
Another round of negotiations was held to establish a service center for maintenance and overhaul of helicopters in Azerbaijan within the 10th International Exhibition HeliRussia-2017 in Moscow.
President of CJSC Azerbaijan Airlines Jahangir Askerov, Director General of Russian Helicopters holding Andrey Boginsky, President of Silk Way Holding Zaur Akhundov and Director General of Silk Way Helicopter Services Azer Sultanov took part in the negotiations.
Jahangir Askerov and Andrey Boginsky signed the “Main Actions Plan for 2017 on the project of establishing a service center for maintenance and repair of Russian and Soviet-produced civil helicopters in the territory of the Republic of Azerbaijan”.
Soft loans push over 300 Azerbaijani business projects forward
From early 2017, Azerbaijan’s National Fund for Entrepreneurship Support (NFES) provided soft loans worth 36.2 million manats, which contributes to implementation of about 360 projects, the Azerbaijani Economy Ministry quoted the Fund’s Executive Director Shirzad Abdullayev as saying. The entrepreneurs received preferential loans worth 9.8 million manats as part of the business forum. These funds will be used to develop the production of building materials, household items, establishment of a greenhouse complex, development of poultry and livestock farming and other areas.
May 26
Azerbaijan’s economic, investment prospects presented in Australia
Australian city of Perth hosted a presentation of Azerbaijan’s economic and investment opportunities. The presentation was organized for Australian entrepreneurs by Azerbaijan’s Honorary Consulate in Perth. The presentation was attended by more than 60 representatives of various Australian companies engaged in agriculture, dairy and livestock sectors. Representatives of oil and gas, transportation and tourism companies also attended the event. The presentation of Azerbaijan’s economic potential caused great interest among the participants, and many of them expressed desire to take part in the fortcoming Australia-Azerbaijan business forum in Baku.
Azerbaijan’s trading house opens in Belarus
The Azerbaijani trading house has opened in Minsk, Belarus.
Azerbaijani delegation led by Minister of Economy Shahin Mustafayev earlier arrived in Belarus to attend the opening ceremony of the trading house.
The decision to open a trading house was made at the 10th meeting of the Azerbaijan-Belarus Intergovernmental Commission on Trade and Economic Cooperation.
May 27
Standard & Poor’s Global Ratings in its recent extraordinary assessment has affirmed long- and short-term foreign and local currency sovereign credit ratings of the Republic of Azerbaijan at 'BB+/B'.
Azerbaijani Finance Ministry said the main reason for the S&P extraordinary assessment was the restructuring of the International Bank of Azerbaijan’s foreign liabilities and the transfer of a part of them to the government.
S&P specialists note that the growth of the ratio of Azerbaijan’s external debt to the country’s GDP as a result of restructuring of foreign liabilities of the International Bank of Azerbaijan (IBA) was taken into account in the agency’s January forecast, so now this process will not affect Azerbaijan’s ratings.
S&P estimates that as a result of the restructuring, Azerbaijan’s net general state debt could increase by about 9 percent of GDP due to the direct assumption of IBA’s foreign liabilities and SOFAZ’s deposit in IBA, which the ratings agency excluded from its calculation of state liquid assets.