APA,
15, April 2008

15 April, Baku: The revival programmes for the Azerbaijani military industrial complex for 2008-2011 envisage the reconstruction of 53 facilities, Minister of Defence Industry Yavar Camalov told a government meeting on the results of the first quarter of this year chaired by the president yesterday.

Appropriate draft regulations were prepared to ensure the implementation of the State Defence Order Programme and a 10-year state programme was drawn up based on these regulations, Camalov said.

"As part of the State Defence Order Programme, current and future programmes have been drawn up for the creation and production of goods for defence purposes. The need of the Defence Ministry and other security agencies for defence goods, including fire arms and special purpose goods, as well as spare parts for military equipment and its repair has been reviewed," the minister said.

Camalov also said that steps are being taken to restore ties established under the Soviet Union and establish business ties with different foreign countries.

A total of 80 kinds of defence goods are expected to be created and 444 kinds of goods are expected to be produced this year as part of the State Defence Order Programme, the minister said.

"The production of defence, special and civil goods is expected to increase by 42 per cent this year. The output in the first quarter of this year increased by 35.4 per cent compared to the same period last year. The range of goods produced in January-March increased by 51 compared to the same period last year and reached 213," he said.

The 2008 budget allocated 66.07m manats [79.6m dollars] for the Ministry of Defence Industry, Camalov said. The money is planned to be spent on purchasing 128 production units and equipment and creating goods for defence purposes. At the same time, in accordance with the programme, 18 types of state-of-the-art technology need to be purchased from the world's developed countries to start the full-scale production of defence goods. In accordance with the Investment Programme, 159m manats are required to create appropriate production space. Camalov said that the reconstruction of the Iqlim, Peyk and Telemexanika plants had been completed last year.

It must be noted that the Ministry of Defence Industry was founded in 2005. The ministry currently has five production associations, three offices, a research institute and the National Aerospace Agency.