Azertag - State Information Agency of Azerbaijan Republic, 3 February 2004

A solemn opening ceremony of the Baku Business Center was held on February 2. President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev took part in the ceremony. In front of the Center's building, the Head of State was welcomed with honor by local businessmen. President Ilham Aliyev cut a red ribbon symbolizing the opening of the Center.
Minister of Economic Development Farhad Aliyev updated the President in detail on the work done saying in particular that this Center - one of the biggest gifts made by our nationwide leader Heydar Aliyev to local entrepreneurs - had been reconstructed in collaboration with the United Nations Development Program in accordance with modern standards, and in a quite short period. President Ilham Aliyev familiarized himself with products of various enterprises displayed at the exhibition arranged here, and was curious about those, which had been established in their times in Azerbaijan and further faced economic difficulties. Having viewed administrative offices of the Center, the Head of State expressed his satisfaction with the conditions created here.

BAKU, Azerbaijan - Fulfillment of the obligations undertaken by Azerbaijan upon joining the Council of Europe (CE) has taken a long time. Last week, the authorities satisfied one more obligation, this one related to anti-corruption legislation.
Milli Mejlis, the parliament of Azerbaijan, adopted an anti-corruption law consisting of four sections and 14 articles. On the eve of Azerbaijan's entrance into the Council of Europe in January 2001, the country undertook to draw up a state program to fight against corruption, adopt anti-corruption laws and join international conventions. In June 2000, former-president of the country Heydar Aliyev signed a decree directing the government to design drafts of a national anti-corruption program and anti-corruption law within 6 months.

The Azerbaijan Government and BTC Co, operated by BP, today hosted an official ceremony during which the final package of project finance documents was signed to finance BTC construction. The signing ceremony, which took place in the Gulustan Palace in Baku, marks the completion of agreements covering the third party financing for the pipeline project.
The BTC financing agreements were signed by representatives of the Governments of the Azerbaijan Republic, the Republic of Georgia and the Republic of Turkey and representatives from the BTC lender group in the presence of the President of the Azerbaijan Republic, H.E. Ilham Aliyev.

On 23 January, President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev came to the Elysee Palace to meet President of France Jacques Chirak.
President of Azerbaijan was greeted very warmly, he revered the guard of honor, and then, head of the Azerbaijani state was welcomed by the French President at the stairs of the Elysee Palace.
At the residence of the French President, the heads of state had a private talk.
In the course of the meeting, discussed were the prospects of the bilateral relations. Heads of state stressed the necessity of conducting numerous meetings to promote further development of cooperation between the countries.
Then, was held an enlarged meeting of President of the Azerbaijan Republic Ilham Aliyev and President of France Jacques Chirak. The meeting was attended by high rank officials.

On 13 January, in the capital of Azerbaijan, Baku, at the Hyatt Regency Hotel, started the conference on preliminary planning the field exercises titled "Cooperative Best Effort-04" in the frame of the NATO "PfP" Program.
The Conference is attended by representatives of 20 NATO member-countries, including the United States, Greta Britain, Canada, Hungary, Poland and Turkey, partner countries - Azerbaijan, Austria, Romania, Bulgaria, Slovakia, Macedonia, Croatia, Switzerland, Lithuania, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Belarus and Moldova, as well as representatives of the military headquarters of this Organization in Brussels, Madrid and Naples, and some 100 IFRC representatives.