BAKU SUBWAY SHIFTING TO ELECTRONIC FARE SYSTEM

AssA-Irada News, January 15-18, 2002

Baku's subway is expected to apply an electronic system for fares in March this year. The advantage of the system is its ability to hold an exact registration of passengers, downplaying extra checks. The system has been already experimented in the Elmlar Akademiyasi (Academy of Sciences) underground station, Baku Subway Department said Tuesday.

Azeri GDP up 9.9 per cent in 2001
BBC Monitoring Service - United Kingdom; Jan 17, 2002

Text of report by Azerbaijani news agency Turan

Baku, 17 January: Gross Domestic Product (GDP) worth 26,620bn manats was produced in Azerbaijan in 2001. With a deflation index of 102.7 per cent, GDP has grown 9.9 per cent.

The material sphere of production accounted for 57.3 per cent of GDP (an increase of 6.8 per cent), the non-material sphere for 34.9 per cent (10 per cent up) and pure taxes for 7.8 per cent.

The GDP breakdown in key economic sectors is as follows:

\· \· industry - 35.5 per cent;

\· agriculture - 15.7 per cent;

\· construction - 6.1 per cent;

\· transport and communications - 12.3 per cent;

\· trade - 6.7 per cent;

\· other sectors - 15.9 per cent;

\· pure taxes - 7.8 per cent.

The GDP per capita rate averages around 3,331,000 manats (715.4 dollars).

Source: Turan news agency, Baku, in Russian 1145 gmt 17 Jan 02

/BBC Monitoring/ © BBC.

Azerbaijan reports overall rise in industrial, agricultural output on 2001
BBC Monitoring Service - United Kingdom; Jan 14, 2002

Text of report by Azerbaijani news agency Turan

Baku, 14 January: During a press conference last week at the headquarters of the [ruling] New Azerbaijan Party, Azerbaijani Deputy Prime Minister Yaqub Ayyubov told journalists about the preliminary results of Azerbaijan's economic development in 2001.

In 2001, the country put out industrial products worth 17,600bn manats [3.74bn dollars] (5.1 per cent higher than in 2000) and agricultural products worth 5,900bn manats [1.26bn dollars] (up 11.1 per cent). Also last year oil extraction totalled 14.9m tonnes (up 6.3 per cent) and gas extraction reached 5.5bn cubic metres. Power production was 18.8bn kilowatt-hours (up 12 per cent) and capital construction expenses stood at 5,600bn manats [1.2bn dollars] (up 17.1 per cent) while the goods turnover reached 11,900bn manats [2.5bn dollars] (up 9.9 per cent).

The deputy prime minister also touched on issues relating to the privatization of major industrial-complex enterprises. In his words, the privatization of the aluminium and machinery sectors has been a success.

Source: Turan news agency, Baku, in Russian 0850 gmt 14 Jan 02

/BBC Monitoring/ © BBC.