Roundtable on Oil Revenues and State Expenditures
On April 5, the Eurasia Foundation and the Entrepreneurship Development Foundation held a one-day, USAID-supported roundtable on “Oil Revenues and State Expenditures” to examine transparency and efficiency in the management of oil revenues in Azerbaijan. The event brought together approximately 40 representatives of Parliament, various ministries, the State Oil Fund, international and local NGOs, economic experts and journalists.
USAID’s Oil Revenues Problems of Azerbaijan project and the Eurasia Foundation, in collaboration with the Entrepreneurship Development Foundation, will conduct a series of these events with government officials, civil society experts and international financial institutions to discuss various aspects of oil revenues allocation in order to inform the most-efficient approach to addressing Azerbaijan’s development needs. Following the roundtables, the project will present a package of recommendations to the Parliament and other government bodies based on the group's analysis.
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| Experts discuss how Azerbaijan can most efficiently manage its oil revenues |
At the April 5 roundtable, Sabit Baghirov, the Director of the Entrepreneurship Development Foundation and Jonathan Henick, the U.S. Embassy Public Affairs Officer delivered opening remarks and underscored the importance of this issue to Azerbaijan. Baghirov stated that the purpose of the project is to promote public engagement in the economic and social development of their country. The project will also increase citizens’ participation in discussing the government’s policies related to managing the country’s oil resources. Basil Zavoico, the International Monetary Fund Resident Representative in Azerbaijan talked about international experience in managing oil revenue and presented comparative analysis of Nigeria, Saudi Arabia and Azerbaijan in managing oil revenues. He also emphasized the importance of learning the experience of other countries experienced oil boom in order to develop prudent oil revenue management system.
Azer Mehtiyev, the Director of Expert magazine, emphasized that Azerbaijan’s oil boom will be relatively short-lived on current forecasts. In addition, he presented the list of state capital investment projects that will be implemented by the Government of Azerbaijan in 2007. Presenters answered questions of journalists and other experts at the end of the roundtable.
The event was highly publicized by Lider, Public, ANS, SPACE, ATV television channels and a number of news agencies and press outlets. At the end of the presentations, questions raised by the media and participants were responded.
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