President Ilham Aliyev: Historic events took place in Azerbaijan's oil and gas sector in 2017
Jan. 1
Historic events have taken place in Azerbaijan's oil and gas sector in 2017, said Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev.
President Ilham Aliyev said this in his congratulations to the Azerbaijani people on the occasion of the Solidarity Day of World Azerbaijanis and New Year.
"The issue of extending the life of the "Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli" field has been resolved. The contract will remain in effect until 2050 and fetch billions of dollars in profit to our country. The bonus paid to Azerbaijan alone exceeds $3 billion. It is possible to say that the implementation of the Southern Gas Corridor has entered its final stages. The opening of the TANAP project is expected next year. This is also a historic event. Azerbaijan is turning into a very important partner in ensuring the energy security of Europe," President Aliyev said.
As the President of Azerbaijan noted, there was another historic event this year - the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway was opened in Baku.
"Baku-Tbilisi-Kars will be the shortest and the most reliable link between Asia and Europe. Azerbaijan will derive both economic and political dividends from this for decades to come. Azerbaijan is turning into an important transit country. If we also look at the North-South transport corridor, we can see that Azerbaijan is becoming a strategic transport hub of global proportions, even though we do not have access to the world ocean," added the head of state.
WB offers ways to develop private sector in Azerbaijan
Jan. 2
Azerbaijan needs to make some changes to the legislation to further develop the private sector, said Keiko Honda, executive vice president and chief executive officer of the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA) of the World Bank Group (WB), in an interview with Trend.
Azerbaijan has a good infrastructure and can more actively attract private sector to the country, said Honda, who paid a one-day visit to Baku.
This is not just about private financing, she noted adding that it is necessary to slightly change the legal framework in order to improve the cooperation between the state and private sector and attract independent electricity producers.
Honda believes that this step will further develop the private sector and increase the volume of private investments in the country.
Director for Operations at the MIGA Sarvesh Suri, for his part, told Trend that the main goal of the Azerbaijani government is to diversify the country's economy, and the WB is ready to support Azerbaijan in this issue.
Azerbaijan pays great attention to the development of agriculture and various infrastructure projects in order to diversify its economy, noted Suri.
Moreover, Azerbaijan today is actively developing the sphere of transportation and freight traffic, he added.
He said also that the World Bank is ready to support Azerbaijan in these issues.
Azerbaijan joined the World Bank in 1992. As part of the cooperation with Azerbaijan, MIGA provided guarantees for loans to Azercell, Baku Coca-Cola Bottlers, Kocbank Azerbaijan (now YapiKredi Bank Azerbaijan) and for other companies in different years.
The latest project, in which the agency participated, was the provision of a loan guarantee for the construction of the Trans Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline (TANAP) that is a part of the Southern Gas Corridor (SGC) project.
In 2017, MIGA supported private investments worth $4.7 billion in developing countries.
MIGA has supported more than 800 projects since 1998.
Azerbaijan, EU to mull aviation agreement in Baku
Jan. 3
Director General of the European Commission's department for mobility and transport (DG MOVE) Henrik Hololei will visit Baku Jan. 27-30, Head of Political, Economics and Press and Information Section of the EU Delegation to Azerbaijan Denis Daniilidis told Trend.
He will hold discussions on the Common Aviation Area Agreement between Azerbaijan and EU, added Daniilidis.
Earlier, Kestutis Jankauskas, head of the EU delegation to Azerbaijan said the EU hopes to initial the aviation agreement with Azerbaijan in the second half of January 2018. He noted that 99 percent of the agreement's articles have already been agreed upon.
Creation of a common aviation area is an initiative of the European Commission and aims to open and integrate aviation markets. This will lead to new opportunities for consumers and operators, and, most importantly, to high standards in terms of flight safety as well as air traffic management.
Logistics - a priority for co-op between Azerbaijan, Czech Republic
Jan. 3
Logistics is one of the priority areas for cooperation between Azerbaijan and the Czech Republic, secretary for economic and commercial affairs at the Czech Embassy in Azerbaijan Jan Jindrich told Trend.
He added that the countries already successfully cooperate in energy and agricultural spheres.
"Our companies are interested in opportunities which North-South railway corridor may provide. At the same time, we see great potential for cooperation in the special economic zone in Azerbaijan's Alat," said Jindrich.
The official stressed that joint projects in this zone currently remain under consideration, since the legal status of the zone has not yet been determined.
"I am confident that as soon as the Azerbaijani government approves the status of the zone, the Czech investors will start implementing their plans in this territory," said Jindrich.
Trade turnover between Azerbaijan and the Czech Republic increased by more than 100 percent in January-October 2017, compared to the same period of the previous year.
The two countries' trade turnover reached $924 million in 10 months of 2017, of which $846 million accounted for the export of Azerbaijani products to the Czech Republic, while the import of the Czech products by Azerbaijan totaled $78 million.
Over the past 10 years, the Czech banks, both public and private, invested more than $2 billion in the Azerbaijani economy, which puts the Czech Republic in the list of top 10 investors in the economy of Azerbaijan, added Jindrich.
Mashhad-Nakhchivan train likely to boost tourism in New Year
Jan. 5
Iranian Consul General to Azerbaijan's Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic Mansour Airom has expressed hope that re-launching the Mashhad-Nakhchivan train would help boost tourism in the neighboring countries over the next year.
Iranian and Azerbaijani railways officials are making efforts to re-launch the Mashhad-Nakhchivan train in the early days of January 2018, the envoy told Trend.
He added that following the recent technical measures aimed at improving the safety of passengers the train is expected to run in early January.
The train which was launched first in December 2016 stopped running due to technical reasons a few months ago.
The two countries exchange a considerable amount of tourists annually. According to the Azerbaijani Ministry of Culture and Tourism about 340,000 Iranian tourists arrived in the country between January-November 2017.
New appointment in Azerbaijan’s Economy Ministry
Ayaz Aliyev has been appointed head of the Office of Azerbaijan's Economy Ministry.
Previously, he served as deputy head of the Office, while Samir Valiyev headed the Office.
Samir Valiyev left his position because he was appointed deputy energy minister.
Thus, the management of the Office now consists of two people: Ayaz Aliyev, head of the office, and his deputy Orkhan Novruzov.
AZAL changes check-in procedure for its flights
Jan. 5
Check-in for all flights of Azerbaijan Airlines (AZAL) at all airports will be closed 60 minutes before departure from January 15, 2018, AZAL said.
The check-in will be available three hours before departure.
"Passengers should check in at the airport in advance," AZAL said. "Passengers can also use the free online check-in on AZAL's website. If passengers have the baggage, they should drop it off to the baggage drop-off counter."
Azerpost LLC updating corporate information system
Azerbaijan's postal operator Azerpost LLC will complete the process of updating the Colvir Postal System (CPS) in the first months of 2018, a source familiar with the project told Trend.
The work to update the CPS started in August 2017.
CPS, a corporate information system, comprises the following module suites: postal services, financial services, channel management, customer relationship management, liquidity management, treasury, enterprise resource planning, management and tax accounting, general ledger and regulatory compliance.
The update will allow optimizing the whole system's work and create new opportunities for developing the mobile and internet banking services, added the source.
Currently, 1,200 departments and branches of Azerpost LLC are connected to CPS.
Azerpost LLC started providing financial services in April 2012 in line with a license of the Central Bank of Azerbaijan.
Virtual lab for scientific research created in Azerbaijan
Jan. 5
The Institute of Information Technologies of the Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences (ANAS) has created a virtual laboratory for scientific research, the Institute told Trend.
The equipment of the virtual laboratory is based in the institutes of geology and geophysics, oil and gas, as well as in the Institute of Radiation Problems.
Advantages of the virtual laboratory will be available to scientists of institutes and structural subdivisions of ANAS, as well as higher educational institutions of the country, which conduct research and experiments.
The virtual laboratory has been created for the productive use computing power and centralized management of the results of scientific research.
This is a three-dimensional computer model of the virtual laboratory, which will allow scientists to conduct experiments virtually.
USA Today: Baku among cities to explore in 2018
Jan. 6
USA Today has published an article revealing off-the-radar cities to explore in 2018, in which Azerbaijan's Baku tops the list.
The list was composed on recommendations of Sal Lavallo, who at 27 is one of the youngest Americans to have visited all 193 UN member states.
Lavallo says that oil-rich Baku has invested billions in culture and modern architecture, making for a surprising stop in the Caucasus.
"Walking around in the city is like an open-air museum. They have these ancient, ancient ruins and in the background are modern buildings," Lavallo says.
The list also includes Dili (Timor-Leste), Abu Dhabi ( United Arab Emirates), Kigali (Rwanda), Skopje (Macedonia), Beirut (Lebanon), Mendoza (Argentina), Freetown (Sierra Leone), Asmara (Eritrea), Bagan (Myanmar), and Constantine (Algeria).