Press Review July 21, 2018

A look at the partnership between Azerbaijan and the EU against the background of the visit of the Italian President, the prospect of unfinished megaprojects, and the situation in the country's energy system are the leading topics of today's press.

The newspaper Azerbaijan writes about the relations between Azerbaijan and the EU against the backdrop of the visit of Italian President Matarella. The author calls this visit a new stage in the development of friendly relations, listing events that took place during the visit, the signed documents and the opened enterprises. The author also talks about the Azerbaijani-Italian business forum held in Baku, where the business circles were called to invest in Azerbaijan.

The website Musavat.com writes about the dozens of megaprojects remaining unfinished. One of those is the project of businessman Ibrahim Nehramli Islands of the Caspian Sea. A loan of 800 million manat was taken to implement this project in the International Bank of Azerbaijan. According to Nehramli, about 1 billion dollars has already been spent on the work done so far. Currently, all work on the project has been discontinued. But the government did not take the project away from Nehramli in exchange for the spent loan. Experts believe that the project itself is absurd, and the loan taken under it is not calculated correctly.

The newspaper Novoye Vremya writes about the situation in Azerishig JSC after the blackout. The energy infrastructure in the country is developing. But we cannot talk about the uninterrupted power supply of the population. Interruptions with power supply occur in the central districts of Baku and on the periphery. The Azerbaijani state invests billions of manat in the country's energy system, but the interruptions of the energy supply continue. -0---