Azerbaijan produced over 3.5bn dollars industrial goods in 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] (increased 11.1 per cent). In the same year oil extraction totalled 14.9m tonnes (increased 6.3 per cent) and gas extraction reached 5.5bn cu.m. Power production were 18.8bn kWh (increased 12 per cent) and capital construction expenses stood at 5,600bn manats [1.2bn dollars] (increased 17.1 per cent) while goods turnover reached 11,900bn manats [2.5bn dollars] (increased 9.9 per cent).

The deputy prime minister also touched on issues relating to the privatization of major enterprises of the industrial complex. In his words, the privatization of the aluminium and machinery sectors was successful.

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

/BBC Monitoring/ © BBC.

Azerbaijan joins Islamic corporation to develop private sector
BBC Monitoring Service - United Kingdom; Jan 11, 2002

Text of unattributed report by Azerbaijani newspaper Ekho on 11 January entitled "Azerbaijan has become a member of the Islamic Corporation for the Development of the Private Sector"

The official media yesterday published the law of the Azerbaijani Republic "On the Azerbaijani Republic joining the agreement `On creating an Islamic Corporation for the Development of the Private Sector'". The idea of setting up such a structure appeared in the mid-1990s. At the 24th annual session of the council of managers of the Islamic Development Bank in 1999, the leaders of member countries of the Organization of the Islamic Conference signed a relevant agreement.

The Ministry of Economic Development said that the main goal of this corporation was to coordinate efforts by member states of the Organization of the Islamic Conference to develop entrepreneurship, create a common private business database and establish business relations between businessmen from Islamic countries. We should point out that entry into this corporation will allow Azerbaijani businessmen to present projects to obtain a credit from the Islamic Development Bank on privileged conditions.

Source: Ekho, Baku, in Russian 11 Jan 02 p 4

/BBC Monitoring/ © BBC.

Prices of calls to cellular phones go down in Azerbaijan
BBC Monitoring Service - United Kingdom; Jan 8, 2002

Text of report by Azerbaijani Space TV on 8 January

The Communications Ministry press service has issued a statement saying that it has decided to lower the costs of local telephone subscriber's calls to Azercell and Bakcell joint-stock company subscribers starting from 2002. Costs for telephone calls will be lowered from 1,440 manats [0.30 dollars] to 450 manats [0.09 dollars] per minute for subscribers in Baku, and from 1,440 manats to 900 manats [0.18 dollars] for subscribers in other towns and districts in the republic.

In this regard, the Communications Ministry has sent relevant documents to the Economic Development and Finance Ministries to reach agreement. These tariffs will be introduced once the ministries send their replies.

Source: Space TV, Baku, in Azeri 1300 gmt 8 Jan 02

/BBC Monitoring/ © BBC.