Press Review 07/26/2016

The discussions that took place around the financial support of pro-government newspapers, the situation with the banks, ideas about the development model of the country, the rise in prices, and the expectations of Azerbaijani sportsmen from the Olympic Games in Brazil are the leading topics of today's press.

The official newspaper Azerbaijan writes about the upcoming Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, and the expectations of the Azerbaijani national team. The author writes about the role of President Ilham Aliyev in the successes of Azerbaijani athletes that was the result of the President’s policy.

The author gives details about the medals won by the Azerbaijani athletes at sporting events in the past year. From 2013 to 2016, Azerbaijani athletes won a total of 2,723 medals.

Azadlig discusses the order of President Ilham Aliyev to allocate 1 million AZN to assist the media. The financial assistance has been distributed by the Council for Media Support the among 27 newspapers.

This aid cannot be regarded as a state care about the media, as it is pursuing an entirely different purpose.

The newspaper Azadlig did not receive this aid. The newspaper was told in the Press Council that financial assistance is provided to those who cooperate with the authorities.

Novoye Vremya has published an article called The Dollar Is Growing, and the Government Is Still Hoping for a Miracle.

In the banks of Azerbaijan on July 25 the dollar established itself at the level of 1.6 manats for $ 1. The Azerbaijan Central Bank has set the course 1.5755 manats for $ 1. Commercial banks sell the dollar not less than at 1.6 AZN. Most banks sell dollars in the range 1.61-1.63 AZN. As you can see, we are once again faced with the devaluation, although soft. We are moving to an economic crisis, and the government does not care and uses appreciation of the dollar and rise in prices to handle the situation.

Echo has published an article entitled Is the Singapore Model of Development Applicable to Azerbaijan? According to national experts, in order to achieve Singapore's success, first of all, we need to completely eradicate corruption and introduce a system of penalties for serious violations of the laws. As the head of the Centre for Sustainable Development Studies Nariman Agayev said, primarily Azerbaijan can adopt such a thing as "self-discipline and business ethics."

"I hope that someday we will have something like the Singapore model but today Azerbaijan's economy is far from perfect, and it depends in fact on the oil sector only. A diversified economy should be established in Azerbaijan. Then we can talk about what we have to learn from Singapore, but for now we are just on the way to it," the economist said.

Bizim Yol writes of pessimistic forecasts about the country's banks. The expert Samir Aliyev says the House’s decision to liquidate the licenses of several banks was correct. He predicts the closure of 3-4 banks in the near future.