News in Brief

Bilateral co-op agreement to be signed
Turkish Ministers for Interior Affairs Abdulgafar Aksu and Justice Cemil Cicek will arrive in Azerbaijan for an official visit early in July, Turkish Ambassador to Azerbaijan Ahmet Unal Cevikoz has told Azernews. According to him, issues on expanding cooperation between the relevant structures of the two countries and legal assistance will be discussed, as well as an agreement on bilateral cooperation is planned for signing during the visit.

PA CE rapporteurs en route to Baku
Members of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PA CE) Monitoring Committee, Andreas Gross of Switzerland and Martinez Kassan of Spain, will visit Baku in mid-June to prepare a report on the level of democracy and the state of human rights in the country.
Spokeswoman for CE Baku Office Aytan Sirinova told AssA-Irada that during the visit the CE rapporteurs plan to meet heads of political parties and non-governmental organizations to discuss the law on Election Code, the state of human rights, as well as the issue of "political prisoners". A report to be drawn up on the outcomes of the visit will be submitted to the PACE fall session.

FM to visit Egypt
Foreign Minister Vilayat Guliyev received Egyptian Ambassador to Azerbaijan Cihan Amin Mahammad Ali on Friday.
During the meeting the Ambassador conveyed sincere greetings to Vilayat Guliyev  from his Egyptian counterpart Ahmad Mahir, noting impatience for his coming visit to Cairo. 
The Foreign Ministry has told AssA-Irada Vilayat Guliyev, in his turn, appreciated the Azerbaijani-Egyptian relations, stressing his support for their further strengthening. The Minister noted he keeps an eye on the Middle East problem, voicing his hope for its soonest resolution.

Parliament to be in summer recess
The Parliament is scheduled to be in summer recess after its three sessions, Vice-Speaker Arif Rahimzada was addressing the parliamentary session on Tuesday. The parliamentarians discussed nine bills, approving draft laws "On compulsory insurance of passengers", "On nutrition of infants and babies" in the third reading and "On tax service bodies of municipalities" in the second reading, as well as the law "On accounting".

PACE to consider political prisoners
The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) is scheduled to discuss the implementation of Azerbaijan's commitments to CE in its summer session on June 22-27, member of the Azerbaijani delegation to PACE Baxtiyar Aliyev said in his interview with AssA-Irada.
According to him, the session is also expected to mull over a report on the situation with "political prisoners" in Azerbaijan prepared by PACE Political Committee member George Clerfayt.

Int'l conference on human rights due
A conference on analysis of the European Convention on Human Rights will be organised jointly with the Young Lawyers Association and Council of Europe in the Ganclik international tourism centre in Zaqulba, outside Baku, on June 25-26.
Spokeswoman for Council of Europe Baku Office Aytan Sirinova told AssA-Irada that Christoph Ziman, an employee of the Secretariat of Strasbourg-based Human Rights Department, as well as three officials of the department will attend the forum, which is intended to give the participants necessary data on human rights.

Military to attend NATO undertakings
Under the individual program signed with NATO, Azerbaijani military is attending NATO's tactic courses on civil-military cooperation in Saragosa, Spain, on June 16-27, familiarization courses on reserves and mobilization in Oberammergau, Germany, on June 16-20, discussions on cooperation in hydrography, familiarization courses on designing marine charters and shot-term training in Turkey on June 17-23, under the NATO's Partnership for Peace Program.

Enterprise Center and AFBI to arrange securities seminar
The consulting company AFBI and the Baku Enterprise Center will organize a series of seminars to support small and medium entrepreneurship (SME) starting on Wednesday.
A center source has told AssA-Irada the first seminar, dedicated to restructuring enterprises and raising their capital by issuing securities.
James Rowley, Tacis Project Team Leader, will give a paper on Development of Securities Market in Azerbaijan.

Gov’t to remove double taxation
Azerbaijan will sign an agreement on removal of double taxation with Iran, Japan and the United States shortly, Chief of the Senior Department of Tax Policy and Strategic Researches under the Taxes Ministry Akif Musayev has told AssA-Irada.
According to Musayev, Azerbaijan has been working toward removal of double taxation with more than 30 countries and has signed relevant agreements with 15 nations, while the rest are under development.
He also noted the appropriate agreements already in force with all CIS nations.

Per capita GDP reported 313.8 USD 
The volume of GDP over the past five months has increased by 9.4 percent to last year, totaling 12.5trln manats. Per capita GDP has surged by 8.6 percent, making up 1.539m manats or 313.8 US dollars. 
The State Statistics Committee has told AssA-Irada that 55.8 percent of GDP occurred on production and 37.3 percent on service sector, while net taxes on production and import constituted 6.9 percent. The key fields structuring GDP were industry (41.8 percent), transport (8.8 percent), trade (8.8 percent), agriculture (4 percent), post service and communications (2.3 percent), construction (10 percent), and public and other services (22 percent).

CIS Energy Council to meet in Bishkek
A delegation of Azerbaijani energy specialists will attend a meeting of CIS Energy Council to be held in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, late in June, a source from the Azerenergy JSC has told AssA-Irada. The event with representatives of international energy organizations will discuss issues of basic principles of formation and development of interstate energy market and provision of parallel activities of energy in CIS states.

Leasing contracts attract 74.2bn AZM to state coffers
24,000 contracts on leasing of the state property signed since the start of privatization fetched 74.2bn manats to the state budget.
The Ministry of Economic Development has told AssA-Irada that 5.1bn manats has been transferred to the state budget from 351 leasing contracts signed over the past five months, over-fulfilling the forecast by 13 percent. A working group set up under the Ministry's Department for Management and Privatization  of State Property has determined precisely the leasing debts to the state budget and sent a letter of warning to tenants.

3775 landowners getting compensations
3775 landowners, through whose territories the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan main export oil pipeline passes, as well as 99 municipal lands out of 102 have received compensations so far. The figure makes up 91 percent of the landowners with whom an agreement was signed, BP-Azerbaijan has told AssA-Irada.
In total, 14m US dollars worth of compensations will be paid to landowners by the end of this month. The payment of tax-free compensations begun in April is being conducted through branches of the International Bank of Azerbaijan in 13 districts.

Privatization of plots brings 28.2bn AZM
The Department for Management and Privatization of  State Property under the Ministry of Economic Development has issued a decree on privatization of 91 plots, where private enterprises and outlets are located, ensuring 4bn manat worth of incomes to the state budget in January-May of 2003. 28.2bn manats has been transferred to the state budget from the privatization of a total of 900 plots so far. A source from  the Ministry has told AssA-Irada four leasing contracts on plots, where private enterprises and outlets are located, have been signed over the past five months.