Media Review - January 22, 2019

The development of the non-oil sector in Azerbaijan, possible hindrances to structural changes, and closed banks are the leading topics of today's media.

The Azerbaijan newspaper writes about the development of the non-oil sector. The author cites the words of President Ilham Aliyev, according to which the launch of the mechanism for investment promotion was a major reform.

This program covered 333 projects. Of these, 107 were implemented in 2018. The cost of projects implemented under the investment promotion program is 2.8 billion manat.

Currently, 67 residents are registered in industrial parks, of which 40 are already operating. Estimated investment in these parks is more than 5 billion manat, and 11 thousand jobs have been created.

The newspaper Yeni Musavat writes that structural changes must be accompanied by anti-corruption and anti-monopoly activities. The newspaper discusses this issue with the MP Ali Masimli. He notes that the cost of public services has reached 3.9 billion manat, which is 13% higher than defense expenditures, 70% higher than expenses for education, 48% higher than expenditures for social security, etc.

The MP believes that it is necessary to eliminate parallelism in the control system. The use of public funds is the most wasteful, said Masimli. In his opinion, for the successful implementation of structural reforms, a single strategy is needed in accordance with the new economic model of the country. Structural reforms will not have an effect if corrupt staff remains in the reformed structures, the MP said.

The website Modern.az writes about the beginning of an investigation against the heads of 13 closed banks, who can be held criminally liable. Currently, the volume of problem loans is approaching 2 billion manat. The Deposit Insurance Fund has already paid compensation to 824 million depositors.