Press Review 22/10/2016

Regional cooperation, the expected amendments to legislation in connection with banks, reduction of the number of banks' employees, and the expansion of corruption in the country are the leading topics of today's press.

The newspaper Azerbaijan writes about regional development, while stressing the importance of the Azerbaijani model of statehood. The article stresses that the country's stability has been achieved through the deliberate policy of President Ilham Aliyev.

The website Azadliq.info discusses the expected changes in the legislation, prepared by the Financial Markets Supervision House with the expert Nemat Aliyev. Amendments will be made to the law On Banks. According to the head of the House Rufat Aslanli, the amendments will allow to separate problem assets from banks and use non-problem ones.

However, the expert believes the country's laws do not work, so certain changes on paper do not mean that the problems will be solved in practice.

Without the creation of a normal, independent judicial system, no improvement of business environment is possible and to talk about positive changes is unrealistic, said Nemat Aliyev. It is for this reason we should not expect the inflow of foreign investment.

In addition to all the above reasons there is also the instability of the national currency. However, instead of stabilizing the exchange rate, government officials are more concerned by the export of capital abroad.

Echo publishes an article about unemployed bank staff, the total number of which has reached 10,000. Only this year already 3,000 bank employees have lost their jobs. There is a clear tendency of growth of unemployment and the process of closing and liquidation of banks continues.

According to the economist Azer Mehdiyev, the crisis in the banking system has not yet reached its bottom. Built on speculation with oil money, this system existed due to the incredibly high interest rates, and in fact it turned into a pyramid scheme. However, the bubble burst with the cessation of oil money and the devaluation of the manat.

Another expert, Samir Aliyev noted that the closing of three more banks is expected and the total number of liquidated banks will reach 16.

Novoye Vremya writes about the corruption of government officials, whose mediocre work emerged during the last downpour that caused floods in Baku.

Corruption has long been the norm, and no one is surprised. If even the Ministry of National Security has become a sort of corruption model, why should we blame petty officials for stealing asphalt?

Government officials arrested are just subjected to probation for their actions. It does not contribute to the fight against corruption. And the actions of the prosecutor office that missed the crime at the MNS leadership speak for themselves.