State Social Protection Fund and UNDP inaugurate the Fund's branch office in Sheki

Sheki, 29 November 2007 - Chairman of the State Social Protection Fund of the Republic of Azerbaijan Salim Muslumov and the UNDP Resident Representative Bruno Pouezat inaugurated the Fund's new branch office here this morning.

Not only Sheki have got another beautiful building, but from now on the people of Sheki, especially the pensioners, will benefit from better services by the Fund's newly-trained and equipped staff.

With the support of the United Nations Development Program, Azerbaijani Government embarked on the road of reforming the country's pension system back in 2003. Since then, within a USD 7.4 million project, the State Social Protection Fund enhanced its managerial and data processing capacity and established a pension system based on individual accounts. The Management Information System, designed and set up under the auspices of the project, links the Central office in Baku with local and regional branches like Sheki. The system includes all necessary information on each pensioner in any part of the country.

"It is the right of every human being on the planet to be able to achieve the retirement with decent financial means", said UNDP Resident Representative addressing the people of Sheki gathered in front of the new office building. He praised the Government for making the reform of the pension system a national priority.

To maintain effective shift to the new pension system, hundreds of staff of the pension fund both from central and local offices received training.

According to the new pension system based on personal accounts, the more the people would contribute to the pension fund as their social insurance, the more funds will accumulate on their accounts for the time when they will become entitled to pension. "Out of 186,000 registered employed population of Sheki, only 31,000 are registered with the Fund and contribute to social insurance scheme. It is with contributions that we pay the pensions to pensioners", announced the Chairman of the Social Protection Fund. He called on the employed population of Sheki to register with the Fund so that the pensioners will get their pensions in time.

While the Fund built and renovated the new office building in Sheki, UNDP provided for furniture, computer equipment and software, and provided training to the office staff. The project assists the State Social Protection Fund to modernize its operations in line with internationally accepted Social Security and ICT standards.

For more information:

Mr. Elnur Khalilov
Development Adviser, Team Leader for Information and Communications Technology for Development practice
Tel: 4989888 (ext.281)