Fully Suspended Activities of Sheki Silk Plant

JSC Sheki Ipek (Sheki Silk Factory) has been suspended. The formal reason for this was an insignificant debt for electricity worth 36 thousand manats, the correspondent of Turan reported from Sheki.

More than 200 employees have been sent on an indefinite-time leave and now only the Acting Director and a group of security workers are at work.

The workers received monthly minimum wage - about 160 manat per month, three times less than the average monthly wage in the country.

At the time of privatization of Sheki Ipek the plant employed about 2,000 people. In 2002 the company was privatized by the company Parvana though investment tender under a condition of the restoration and development of the production of silk products.

After 98% of shares became the property of LLC Parvana, they were distributed among the companies LLC General Construction (81%) and LLC Senate Associates (17%).

At the recent general meeting of the shareholders it was revealed that in the name of Sheki Ipek there was registered a multi-million dollar loan that sprouted to 70 million manat up to date. The loan was borrowed from JSC International Bank of Azerbaijan.

The media published a lot of articles, according to which LLC Parvana and LLC General Construction were owned by Khagani Bashirov, who was on friendly terms with the former chairman of the IBA Jahangir Hajiyev. ----08B