OCT. 30 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Azerbaijan’s Agency for Renewable Energy said it is developing a 200 megawatt wind farm in the Caspian Sea, to help diversify the country’s energy supply. The project will cost around 450-500m manat (around $450m). Azerbaijan, which has only minor renewable energy production, wants to reach a capacity of 2 gigawatt by the end of the decade.
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(News report from Issue No. 255, published on Nov. 6 2015)
OCT. 31 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Azerbaijan and Indonesia established a 30-day visa free regime which they said would promote tourism between the two countries. The visa-free regime with Indonesia contrasts with Azerbaijan’s constraints on European travellers. Over the past few years, Azerbaijan has increased restrictions on European travel.
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(News report from Issue No. 255, published on Nov. 6 2015)
NOV. 3 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Tony Adams, the former England and Arsenal footballer, has become the unlikely cheerleader of Azerbaijan’s healthcare system.
Media quoted him as saying that he credits doctors in Azerbaijan, where he is working as director of football at the country’s biggest club Gabala, with saving his life with heart surgery.
He said that he referred himself to the Gabala team doctor after feeling chest pains.
“The brilliant surgeons at the Medical Plaza (hospital) did a fantastic job, as has been reiterated to me by my cardiologist in the UK,” he said.
“I know full well that without the brilliance of Dr Uzeyir Rahimov and his team I would not be alive now: a minor heart operation saved my life.”
Mr Adams, 49, is one of England’s most successful living footballers. He played more than 650 times for Arsenal, between 1983 and 2002, winning 10 trophies. He also played 60 times for England.
Mr Adams started managing Gabala in 2010.
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(News report from Issue No. 255, published on Nov. 6 2015)
OCT. 31 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The authorities paid a journalist working for the US-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty $30,000 in compensation after they admitted that police officers had beaten him in 2008. Agil Khalil was beaten by policemen when he tried to take photos in Baku.
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(News report from Issue No. 255, published on Nov. 6 2015)
NOV. 5 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The EBRD doubled Azerbaijan’s economic growth predictions to 3% this year, an upgrade that will come as a relief for the the government which has been trying to cope with an economic downturn. It is reliant on oil as its main foreign currency earner. Oil prices have fallen 50% in the past 18 months.
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(News report from Issue No. 255, published on Nov. 6 2015)
NOV. 5 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev flew to Tbilisi for a meeting with Georgian President Giorgi Margvelashvili where the they were expected to discuss a so called strategic partnership. Georgia and Azerbaijan have grown increasingly close because they share major oil and gas pipelines running from the Caspian Sea to Turkey and then on to Europe.
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(News report from Issue No. 255, published on Nov. 6 2015)
NOV. 3 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — US-based UOP signed a contract to provide technology and licensing for new units to be built at the Heydar Aliyev oil refinery near Baku. UOP is a subsidiary of Honeywell International. SOCAR, Azerbaijan’s state-owned energy company, has been looking for partners to modernise the country’s most important refinery. Azerbaijan needs to produce more petrol to hit growing demand.
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(News report from Issue No. 255, published on Nov. 6 2015)
NOV. 2 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – As expected, the ruling Yeni Azerbaijan party won parliamentary elections in Azerbaijan, securing President Ilham Aliyev’s control over the legislative assembly.
Azerbaijan’s Central Election Committee said that Yeni Azerbaijan had won 69 seats in the 125-seat parliament, slightly lower than five years ago. Independent MPs, who are in reality loyal to Mr Aliyev, won most of the other seats, giving him near total control.
Mr Aliyev said that the result reflected the will of Azerbaijan’s people and gave him a mandate for change.
“The factors, hindering the development of the country, as well as corruption cases should be eliminated. There is a strong political will and public support for achieving it,” he told media after the election.
The West had criticised Azerbaijan for cracking down on civil liberties and in the run-up to the election its main vote monitoring watchdog, the OSCE’s ODHIR, pulled out of covering the election after a row with the Azerbaijani authorities over the number of monitors it was allowed.
Tension has grown this year between the West and Azerbaijan. After the election result the US said: “We continue to have concerns about the restrictive political environment in Azerbaijan and urge the Government of Azerbaijan to respect the freedoms of peaceful assembly, association, and independent voices including the media.”
Russia, by contrast, praised the election as free and fair. European vote monitors have never said an election in Azerbaijan was free or fair.
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(News report from Issue No. 255, published on Nov. 6 2015)
NOV. 5 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Azerbaijan’s foreign currency reserves fell 3% in September to just over $7b, media reported, highlighting just how much cash the Central Bank has spent propping up the manat. Azerbaijan’s Central Bank has now spent half its currency reserves in the past year.
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(News report from Issue No. 255, published on Nov. 6 2015)
NOV. 4 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Azerbaijan said it wants BP to remain as the operator in Shah Deniz, the country’s largest gas field. A senior official at SOCAR, Azerbaijan’s state-owned energy company, told Reuters that SOCAR and BP will continue cooperation for Phase 3 of the project.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 255, published on Nov. 6 2015)
