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Coalition office Address: J. Jabbarli 44, Caspian Plaza 3, floor 9, Baku, AZ1065 tel/fax: (+99412) 437 13 20 |
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United Project - 2007: A live radio debate on the prudent use of
petrodollars (11/07/2007)
A live radio debate was broadcasted on Diqqat Markazinda (in the focus)
programme on Public Radio on July 11th 2007, in the framework of the Conducting
a Radio Dialogue on the Prudent Use of Oil Incomes component of the United
Project of the Coalition Increasing Transparency in Extractive Industries.
Participating in the programme in capacity of a guest was Mr Ilham Huseynli, an
expert in economics and a member of the Board of the Coalition.
The expert answered the following questions: 1. The role of oil incomes in the alleviation of poverty; 2. The role of oil incomes in the development of the sectors of health and education; 3. The effect of oil incomes on bettering living conditions of refugees and IDPs; 4. The factor of oil in the economy of the country. The expert spoke of the crucial role of oil incomes in poverty reduction as well as of the failed approaches towards benefiting by new opportunities for the development of Azerbaijan following the expansion of crude oil production, the weakness of civilian oversight of the spending of petrodollars and the low level of public awareness of the corresponding issues. It was noted that various funds were established in a number of oil-rich countries all over the world, and certain laws were drafted in order to secure the accumulations from the sale of oil in those funds. A clear – and, probably, the best – example is Norway. The Norwegian fund implements very conservative spending policy with a limitation on the use of more than 4 percent of the entire amount accumulated. In Azerbaijan, no restriction has been imposed on the use of petrodollars – the situation caused a concern of the World Bank. On the one side, the amount of money which is allocated for the construction of Samur-Absheron and Qabala-Oguz-Baku major water pipe as well as for bettering living conditions of internally displaced people is of crucial importance. On the other side, civilian oversight of the corresponding spending bears the same, if not higher, weight. If a square metre of a house which has been built in Barda and Agcabadi regions to accommodate internally displaced persons (IDPs) works out to the amount exceeding that spent on the construction of dwelling quarters in Baku, the capital, there certainly is a crucial need for the civilian oversight of the corresponding spending. Mr Huseynli noted that the ITEI coalition of civil society institutions, which he is a member if, had made a united statement in which it expressed a deep disappointment with the absence of a civil society representative on the Supervisory Board of the Oil Fund.
Last correction date of the file: 24/7/2008 - 14:59:6 Other language version of the file: /az/ |
