Press Review 06/09/2016

Relations between Azerbaijan and the West, the business climate in the country, the quality of soft drinks, the negative side of the TAP project, and the Asian Development Bank loan are the leading topics of today's press.

The official newspaper Azerbaijan writes about the visit of Ilham Aliyev to Germany, the bilateral relations, and the interest of Germany in the relations with Azerbaijan.

The article refers to the turnover of Germany with Azerbaijan, which is 80% of the total turnover in the South Caucasus.

Germany supports the project Southern Gas Corridor.

During Aliyev’s visit, the Karabakh conflict was in the focus.

The author argues that the three major states - the US, Britain and Germany support international projects implemented by Azerbaijan and reforms in the country.

Azadlig analyzes Ilham Aliyev’s appeal to foreign and Azerbaijani businessmen to invest in Azerbaijan.

However, the country lacks the appropriate business climate, with rampant corruption and arbitrariness. Without the eradication of these evils, the business climate will not be conducive to investment and calls will not help that.

The author reminds us of the situation with the Ministry of National Security, customs corruption, arrests of about 70 entrepreneurs and their detention in the department for fight against organized crime, and the finance of the authorities stored in the offshore.

Echo cites the opinion of the head of the Free Consumers Union of Azerbaijan (FCU) Eyyub Huseynov, claiming that the soft drinks segment is one of the most problematic segments in the market. The FCU is complained about substandard cold drinks almost every week. Speaking of sweet soft drinks, forgery has not been detected recently, but in any case their use is not desirable. Consumers complain not only of sweet sodas, but also of ordinary water. So, the huge difference in prices of drinks, which cost from 40 kopecks to AZN 8 per bottle, is not understandable.

Novoye Vremya has published an article titled Lending Suspended. Reasons Unknown. It is about gas projects of Azerbaijan. The Asian Development Bank has agreed to grant a loan, but then the question hung in the air. The question of a loan for the project of the Southern Gas Corridor will be decided on 27 September. The reasons for the postponement are not specified.

In the current difficult situation no one wants to face financial losses. That is why they want to impose the entire load of the project on Azerbaijan, the author writes.

The project is worth 45 billion USD, and it should not be forgotten that the ADB did not like the politicization, which envelops this project. In this difficult time from a financial point of view, no one wants to disperse his funds. Moreover, the exact loan repayment time is not defined.

Yeni Musavat cites the opinion of the expert Azer Mehdiyev on the decision of the Asian Development Bank to postpone the release of one and a half billion USD to Azerbaijan for the project Shahdeniz-2. The reason is that the Azerbaijani authorities have not fulfilled their commitments on democratization and the implementation of economic reforms, have not created real conditions for NGO activities, and have not made appropriate changes to the legislation. There are problems with transparency in the extractive industries.