Azerbaijan - DHA: 01-30.Sep.97
Azerbaijan - DHA: 01-30.Sep.97
Azerbaijan
Situation Report from the DHA Coordinator
1-30 September 1997
HIGHLIGHTS
- Interest of foreign investors continues to rise.
- Small and medium entrepreneurship development continues to receive
attention from both national government and international donors.
- TACIS will provide ECU 16 million for national programme.
SITUATION OVERVIEW
In the late September Parliament session, the long absence of
Azerbaijans ex-Speaker of the Parliament, Mr. Rasul Guliev, from the
country for no clearly defined reasons has been a major issue of
discussion. The ex-Speaker has been out of the country for more than one
year and has missed more than 30 sessions of the Parliament. The other
political issue is, Azerbaijan is the event to achieve a peaceful
settlement of N-K conflict by the end of 1997. The three co-chairpersons
of the OSCE Minsk Group expressed their hope during their visit to
Azerbaijan in September.
Azerbaijans petroleum, gas and other mineral reserves continued to
attract foreign investors from all over the world. During the month of
September, Azerbaijan hosted the third International Trade Fair in Baku.
Investment in Azerbaijan by foreign companies has been ranked six among
the post communist countries after Poland, Hungary, Russia, Czech and
Romania, and ranked second among the CIS countries after Russia. Between
January and August 1997, foreign investments in Azerbaijans economy
increased by 73 percent from the corresponding period of 1996. The
Ministry of Finance announced a 5.5 percent GDP growth during the last
eight-month period. The President, during his visit to Italy in
September, signed several investment contracts. Needless to say, oil
agreement was one of the major agreements that Azerbaijan has signed
with its Italian counterpart during this visit. Large trade delegations
from France, Turkey, Dubai, China and Belgium visited Azerbaijan during
September to further develop the trade relation with Azerbaijan. These
delegations were headed by senior Ministers of their respective
government. The President of the US oil company TEXACO and the
Chairman-President of Itochu-Japan visited Azerbaijan in September.
Against this bright investment scenario, the dark side is the fact that
80 percent of the countrys population live near or below the poverty
threshold. This was stated by TUCA (Trade Unions Confederation of
Azerbaijan). TUCA further stated that the average wage in the Republic
is still USD 30, which is one third of theminimum subsistence level (USD
90) for one person.
TACIS has began elaboration of its National Programme (NP) for 1998-99
to provide technical assistance to Azerbaijan. The technical assistance
will be provided in two stages in the spheres of privatization,
financial and banking sectors, energy, transport, telecommunication,
agriculture, humanitarian assistance, manpower development and
environmental protection. The project proposals for these sectors have
already been sent to TACIS head office for review.
SECTORAL INFORMATION
Coordination
DHA-Azerbaijan continues to facilitate the coordination and
collaboration amongst the humanitarian, UN and donor agencies. DHA
organised and chaired the monthly Inter-Agency and Non-Food meetings
held on 01 and 26 September respectively. These meetings were attended
by all relevant UN, NGO and bi-lateral-donor and Government agencies. A
few major topics were: status of flood and rain damage and arrival of
FAO consultant to review the damages caused to the agriculture, scope of
work of the newly established Ad Hoc Commission to review the
performance and constraints of international humanitarian agencies.
Agriculture
Quoting the Ministry of Agriculture (MoAg), WFP reported, during the
September food inter-agency meeting, that as of August this year the
country had harvested 1,078,000 MTs of cereals. This is 78,000 MTs more
than the last year harvest in the same period. This year the farmers
have cultivated 60,000 ha. more land than last year. MoAg also informed
that the agriculture portion in the Republics GDP had increased from
10.8 percent to 16.7 percent. Potato harvest, both in summer and autumn,
were about 15 percent more than last year. Grapes, on the other hand,
due to mismanagement on the part of the wine industry, continue to be a
non-advantageous crop. As a consequence the harvest, which will continue
until mid-late October, will be a lot less than what was forecasted
(about 13 percent).
Food Assistance
WFP, during the September food coordination meeting, announced that WFP
office in Rome had approved the extension of WFPs Emergency Operation in
Azerbaijan from July 1997 to June 1998. The tentative phase out of WFP
operation in Azerbaijan is scheduled for early 1999. WFPs pipeline for
its 155,000 beneficiaries is well secured for one move year with the
anticipated contributions from USA and ECHO. ECHO envisages that it will
phase out from food contribution from 1998.
Small and Medium Enterprise (SandME) Development
A study undertaken by GTZ (German Technical Cooperation) in July 1997
revealed that about 80 percent of all enterprises in Azerbaijan are
either small or medium-size. At the same time many international
organisations are showing their interest in developing this sector. A
delegation of the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) during their recent
visit to Azerbaijan, expressed their deep interest in the issue of
SandME development. IDB is planning to provide a grant of USD 15 million
for 15 years for this purpose. The delegation further announced that a
consortium of 20 Arab countries will invest USD 20 million in the SandME
sector. The German government has funded GTZ to begin a four-year SandME
development programme in Azerbaijan. The first year of this four year
project will be devoted to fact finding and needs assessment. In the
second phase projects will be undertaken to develop the sector. All this
assistance will have training, technical and financial assistance
components. Government of India has recently extended its technical
cooperation with the Government of Azerbaijan (GoAz) to develop the
SandME sector. The Ganja Technological University of Azerbaijan will
link with Gandhi Technological University in India to help implement
this project.
ADRA has initiated a UNDP-funded activity in Nakhichevan through
assistance to farmers and loans of up to USD 2,000 to start small
enterprises. They have an initial target of 200 beneficiaries.
Health and Nutrition
UMCOR, ever since they established their office in Azerbaijan in early
1996, received five consignments of medicines and medical equipment from
USA. Their fifth consignment arrived in September and, like for the
previous ones, the transportation has been sponsored by the US State
Department. The total value of this consignment is USD 1.2 million. The
total value of the five consignments is estimated at USD 8.2 million.
UMCOR also received a large contribution from US oil company EXXON to
procure these medicines. The medicines will be dispensed by UMCOR
directly to their targeted IDPs, refugees and vulnerable populations.
In a recent Parliamentary session, the issue of fresh and processed food
import has been raised. Based on several studies, it was revealed that
poor quality imported food was of health hazard for the population. The
Ministry of Health informed that, during January-August 1997, about
1,565 cases of dysentery had been registered.
UNFPA organised a four-day workshop on Contraceptive Technology in Baku.
Withe the objective of updating the participants on new technologies.
The workshop was attended by the representatives of Ministry of Health,
NGOs, UN Agencies and family planning workers from Azerbaijan and
Central Asian countries.
Energy
In a recent conference held in Baku and organised by the Turkish and
Japanese Business Councils, the head of the State oil company stated
that by the year 2000 the export of Azerbaijani oil to the world market
will total to 60-70 million MTs per year. He further stated that the
capital investment related to the nine oil agreements signed so far on
prospecting and developing Azerbaijani oil fields will generate USD 30
billion.
This report is available on the internet through RELIEFWEB:
http://www.reliefweb.int
United Nations Office in Baku, Azerbaijan
Mr. Ercan Murat, UN and UNDHA Resident Coordinator
Tel.: (0099412) 93 83 26 or 92 24 91 - Fax: (0099412) 98 32 35
Inter-Agency Support Branch (IASB) - Geneva
Mr. David Bassiouni - Chief
Ms. Sylvia Ferazzi
Tel.: (41 22) 788.1402 - Fax: (41 22) 788.6386
Registry E-Mail: Rosemary.Addo-Yirenkyi@dha.unicc.org
Complex Emergency Division (CED) - New York
Mr. David McLachlan-Karr
Tel.: (1 212) 963.0226 - Fax: (1 212) 963.1388
E-Mail: mclachlan-karr@un.org
Press to contact (DHA-Geneva)
Ms. Madeleine Moulin-Acevedo
Tel.: (41 22) 917.2856 - Fax: (41 22) 917.0023
Telex: 414242 DHA CH - E-Mail: Moulin-Acevedo@dha.unicc.org
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