Head of the State Service for Property Affairs under the Ministry of Economy of Azerbaijan Matin Eynullayev stated that he will prepare proposals for the sale to private investors of part of the state's shares in major state-owned companies, particularly in the structures of SOCAR, AzerGold CJSC, ASCO, BakTelecom, AzTelekom, and ABB Bank, AzVision.az reports.
"President Ilham Aliyev of the Republic of Azerbaijan issued a decree at the end of last year aimed at soliciting private sector investment in order to privatize state-owned firms. This directive requires us to prepare recommendations for all state-owned firms. Proposal preparation should take no longer than nine months. We are discussing selling blocks of stock rather than direct privatization.," Eynullayev said.
According to him, corporatization may affect such SOCAR structures as the Azerkhimiya Production Association, ethylene and propylene production enterprises, and methanol and urea plants.
"Local and foreign investors will be able to take part in purchasing shares of production associations (PAs) and CJSCs, where the state currently holds 100 percent of shares. The shares of the state will be reduced. Now we are working on preparing proposals for each CJSC and PA, and it may take nine months," Eynullayev said.
He underlined that while the government wants to attract international investors to the privatization process, they still have limited land rights (just rent).
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