OCT. 7 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Moodys, the ratings agency, said Azerbaijan’s foreign investments, its low government debt and oil generated fiscal surpluses would shield its economy from shocks. The report highlights why Azerbaijan’s economy is stronger than others in the region.
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(News report from Issue No. 204, published on Oct. 15 2014)
OCT. 13 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Azerbaijan will increase its defence spending next year by just over 3%, keeping up with inflation, IHS Janes Defence reported quoting the Azerbaijani finance ministry. Azerbaijan has been increasing its defence spending through the last few years.
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(News report from Issue No. 204, published on Oct. 15 2014)
BAKU/Azerbaijan, DEC. 5 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Global oil prices have collapsed since the summer, hitting governments, currencies and ordinary people. Baku, the Azerbaijani capital, was built on oil and this slide has, perhaps, been keenest felt here.
Matanat Guliyeva’s husband works for a private oil company. She said: “Salaries have been late for the last two or three months. We have to reduce our budget, as we are uncertain whether my husband’s wage will arrive next week or not.”
Funds directly from oil sales or from taxes generated by oil sales, power Azerbaijan’s state budget. Earlier this month the government passed a budget that increased spending next year but some people in Azerbaijan are now worried about possible economic turmoil triggered by the falling oil prices.
Aytekin Gasimova 18, said she follows news about oil prices closely because an oil price means that her father, who works in local market in Moscow, will also earn less.
“I’m mostly concerned about my tuition fee,” she said. “It seems my family may have difficulties in paying for my education.”
Nijat Qafurov, 43, a bank worker is more optimistic. He said that people’s income will not decrease due to oil prices drop. Instead, he said, if prices keep falling, the government will cut infrastructure projects, not salaries.
And this sense of being able to ride out economic uncertainty rebounded around Baku.
Azer Mammadov, 28, a construction worker, said that the Azerbaijani government has enough money to save the economy.
“I am sure, they have kept some money for such days, and will not let people starve,” he said. “The government will manage it somehow.”
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(News report from Issue No. 212, published on Dec. 10 2014)
OCT. 4 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – A court in Vienna found two former senior members of the Austrian Central Bank’s banknote-printing unit guilty of giving Azerbaijani and Syrian officials kickbacks for contracts.
The verdict confirms that corruption is rampant through even the most senior levels of Azerbaijan.
The two former directors, Johannes Miller and Michael Wolf, each received a two year suspended sentence for their part in a conspiracy to pay around $17.5m over six years to Azerbaijani and Syrian officials in exchange for contracts to print the national currency.
According to a Bloomberg report, the two directors had been ordered to find new business around 2005. They drummed up interest from Azerbaijan but only won the contract to print the Central Bank notes after promising to add an extra 20% kickback to senior officials to be paid through offshore companies.
Azerbaijani officials have previously denied taking bribes from the Austrian Central Bank. Now, though, denying the kickbacks appears all but impossible.
As well as a recent crackdown on human rights and opposition figures, Azerbaijan’s international image is scarred by allegations of major corruption.
Evidence in an Austrian court that business would only be done in Azerbaijan by agreeing kickbacks of 20% is likely to harden this image.
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(News report from Issue No. 203, published on Oct. 8 2014)
OCT. 7 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Azerbaijan’s inaugural Formula 1 race in 2016 will take place through the streets of Baku, Formula 1 boss Bernie Ecclestone said.The race is controversial because of Azerbaijan’s crackdown on human rights. For Azerbaijan, though, it represents a great PR coup.
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(News report from Issue No. 203, published on Oct. 8 2014)
OCT. 4 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – An earthquake measuring 6 magnitude on the Richter Scale hit north- central Azerbaijan, according to the United States Geological Survey (USGS). It was recorded at a relatively deep 5km. There were no fatalities.
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(News report from Issue No. 203, published on Oct. 8 2014)
OCT. 4-6 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – A visit by the mayor of a French town to the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh, controlled by Armenia-backed rebels but claimed by Azerbaijan, triggered an official complaint by the Azerbaijani government. Tensions are increasingly fraught around the Nagorno-Karabakh border zones.
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(News report from Issue No. 203, published on Oct. 8 2014)
OCT. 2 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Turkmenistan’s president Kurgbanguly Berdymukhamedov ended a meeting of the leaders of the countries that border the Caspian Sea by saying that it was their right to build a pipeline across the inland water, media reported.
The meeting — which included the leaders of Russia, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Iran and Azerbaijan — broke up without any major deals although they did agree not to allow NATO forces into the region.
Perhaps the most important single element of the meeting, though, were reports from Astrakhan, the venue in Russia for the meeting, that appeared to push the possibility of a sub-Caspian Sea gas pipeline nearer.
This has been touted before but has never been put into action. The cost has previously been considered too great but now, with demand for energy increasing from Europe, it may make business sense to build the pipeline.
There is also the extra added consideration that most of the infrastructure needed to pump the gas on from Azerbaijan to Europe has already been built or is scheduled to be built soon.
This week Azerbaijan’s president welcomed the deputy PM of Turkmenistan to Baku. Last week the head of Azerbaijan’s energy company SOCAR was in Ashgabat. There may be some reason behind all this activity. One to watch.
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(News report from Issue No. 203, published on Oct. 8 2014)
OCT. 6 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Accusations that Azerbaijan is helping Israel spy on Iran are nonsense, Rafael Harpaz, the Israeli ambassador in Baku, was quoted as saying. Israel and Azerbaijan have grown increasingly close over the last few years. Iran has also accused Azerbaijan of acting as a launch site for Israeli drones.
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(News report from Issue No. 203, published on Oct. 8 2014)
SEPT. 30 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Jailed Azerbaijani human rights activist and government critic Anar Mammadli has won the prestigious Vaclav Havel Prize from the Council of Europe. Mammadli is the director of the Baku-based Election Monitoring and Democracy Studies Center. He was imprisoned last year for tax evasion.
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(News report from Issue No. 202, published on Oct. 1 2014)