Media Review - August 20, 2018

The development of technology parks in the non-oil sector, a look at the Convention on the status of the Caspian Sea and the high cost of paying for tuition at universities are the leading topics of today's press.

The newspaper Azerbaijan writes about the development of technical parks and that their creation plays a big role in the development of the economy as a whole. Technical parks cause the development of local and foreign entrepreneurship. The author notes that the state invested 2.6 million dollars to develop industrial parks and industrial blocks. At the next stage it is expected to invest 1.1 billion dollars and open up to 7,500 new jobs.

The website Azadliq.info quotes the economist Gubad Ibadoglu in connection with the signed Convention on the Legal Status of the Caspian Sea. The text of the Convention is written in English and Russian, and the economist has criticized this fact, since the document is important not only from a legal point of view, but also from a public one. To each of the countries the Convention provides territorial waters in 15 nautical miles or 24 km. It also grants the right to fish in a 10-mile zone (16 km) in contact with territorial waters. Azerbaijan has the exclusive right to almost 40 km of territorial waters. The Convention did not reflect the right to divide the seabed and the ownership of underground wealth; this issue will be resolved bilaterally. In any case, the dominant position is occupied by Russia and partly by Iran, and even the deployment of the navy in the Caspian Sea is also in the hands of the Russian Federation and the Islamic Republic of Iran. The signing of the Convention and the assumption of obligations under such conditions, the economist believes, is the victory of the northern neighbor. He believes that in this case everything had better be kept as it was before.

The same website also brings the reflections of the former MP Gultekin Hajibeyli about the current level of education. She claims that the test system, applied since 1992 opened the doors of higher education institutions for families with no income. The author claims that at present, entrants have been deprived of the right to equality in education. With the existing salaries, the tuition fee starts at 3,000 manat. This amount is inconceivable for most families. -0-