Majority of depositors protected from damage

Majority of depositors in Azerbaijan are protected from damage, said the country’s Finance Minister Samir Sharifov.

The minister went on to say that not only in Azerbaijan, but also in the entire region, the banks faced the greatest damage from the negative impact of external shocks on the economy.

“However, unlike the other countries, in our country, according to a law specifically enacted in 2016, state provides 100 percent guarantee to the insured deposits placed in private commercial banks. As a result, the absolute majority of bank depositors are fully insured against damage,” Sharifov said.

He mentioned that within the framework of measures for improvement in the banking sector, Azerbaijan Deposit Insurance Fund received 545 million manats ($320.57 million) to pay for compensations to depositors of a number of banks.

Azerbaijan, Iraq and Kazakhstan have chances to get full membership of the Gas Exporting Countries Forum (GECF).

The organization’s secretary general Yury Sentyurin stressed that he plans to work with observer countries at GECF.

He went on to say that in recent years, the structure of suppliers and consumers has changed dramatically in the global natural gas market and one of the reasons is the development of liquefied natural gas (LNG) production, which has allowed a significant number of new countries to enter the natural gas market as suppliers.

“I believe that Africa, South-East and Central Asia are of greatest interest in terms of expanding the geography of GECF. Certainly, this will require careful study with each country and for the time being, we cannot talk about a specific list of candidates,” GECF’s secretary general told “Neftegazovaya Vertikal” magazine.

Sentyurin pointed out that an important criterion for potential members should be their status of net gas exporters, which will enable GECF to maintain its ability to achieve coordinated decisions on acute issues.

GECF is an international governmental organization which provides the framework for exchanging experience and information among Member Countries. GECF is a gathering of the world’s leading gas producers and was set up as international governmental organization with the objective to increase the level of coordination and strengthen the collaboration among Member countries.

The member countries of the Forum are: Algeria, Bolivia, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Iran, Libya, Nigeria, Qatar, Russia, Trinidad and Tobago, United Arab Emirates and Venezuela. Azerbaijan, Iraq, Kazakhstan, the Netherlands, Norway, Oman and Peru have the status of observer members.

Azerbaijan joined the GECF as an observer member on November 21, 2015 during the 17th GECF ministerial meeting.