Azerbaijan - Media

Azerbaijan is connected to other former Soviet republics by landline or microwave, and to other countries through Moscow. In 1998, there were 1.4 million telephones in use. Service is said to be of poor quality and inadequate. In 1997, there were about 40,000 cellular phones in use nationwide.

In 2002 there were several newspapers, most of them published in Azerbaijani. Azerbaijan Ganjlari ( Youth of Azerbaijan ) had a circulation of 161,000 in 2002. Over 100 periodicals are published, more than half in Azerbaijani. As of 1999, there were 10 AM and 17 FM stations and two television stations. Domestic and Russian television programs are received locally, while Iranian television is received from an Intelsat satellite through a receive-only earth station. In 2000, there were 22 radios and 259 television sets for every 1,000 people. In 2001, 12,000 Internet subscribers were served by about two service providers.

The Constitution of Azerbaijan specifically outlaws press censorship; however, it is said that the government does not always respect freedom of the press in practice.

Azerbaijan - Libraries and museums

Azerbaijan has a National Library in Baku with 4.4 million volumes. There are 115 recognized museums in the country, 27 of which are art museums, and there are 20 theaters. The country also has 6,571 monuments and historic sights. The Ichari Shahar, or Old Town, in Baku has the Shirvanshah Palace, an architectural monument from the 15th and 16th centuries which has been restored and is now a museum. Other museums are the Museum of History of Azerbaijan (1920), which exhibits archeological, ethnographic, and other relics; the Rustam Mustfayev Azerbaijan State Arts Museum, displaying works of Azerbaijani, Russian and West European artists from the 15th– 19th centuries along with the works of modern Azerbaijani artists; the State Museum of Azerbaijani Carpets and Folk and Applied Art; and the Nizami State Museum of Azerbaijani Literature, depicting the stages of literary development. The Gobustan Museum features prehistoric dwellings and cave paintings over 10,000 years old. Baku, the capital, remains an important cultural and intellectual center in Transcaucasia.

Azerbaijan - Education

The educational system is extensive and illiteracy is practically unknown. In 1995, the adult illiteracy rate was estimated at 0.4% (males, 0.3%; females, 0.5%). The usual language of instruction is Azerbaijani, although Russian, Armenian, and Georgian are also offered by some schools. In 1997 primary schools enrolled 719,013 students in 4,454 schools, with 35,514 teachers. In the same year, secondary schools enrolled 819,625 students taught by approximately 85,000 teachers. In 1998, the pupil-teacher ratio at the primary level was reported as 19 to 1.

Russian is more commonly used at higher-level institutions, but this is slowly changing with a growing demand for the use of Azerbaijani. Education is free. As of 1999, public expenditure on education was estimated at 3.4% of GDP.

Azerbaijan's most important institutes of higher learning are the Azerbaijan Polytechnic Institute, located in Baku, with seven departments and an enrollment of 12,000 students; and the State University, also located at Baku and founded in 1919. It has an enrollment of over 15,000 students in 11 departments. Other institutions include the Medical University, Technological University, the Economic Institute, and the Oil and Chemistry Academy. In total, 15,929 teachers were employed and 115,116 students were enrolled in institutions of higher learning in 1997.

Baku is sometimes referred to as an "oil academy" because of its ongoing research in the areas of turbine drilling, cementation of oil wells, and the development of synthetic rubber from natural gas.

Azerbaijan - Housing

As of 1996, over 1.3 million people were living in houses that were considered to be structurally dilapidated and dangerous. About 66.5% of all housing is privately owned, with 96.5% of rural dwellings and 45.7% of urban dwellings under private ownership. About 67% of current dwellings were built within the period from 1981-1996. In 1996, there were about 60,000 refugees or other displaced persons living in tent communities. Another 300,000 were resideng in public, non-residential buildings. At least 5% of homeless families had been waiting for housing for 10 years or more. From 1991–1995, construction of new housing fell by nearly 50% due to poor economic conditions and the government estimated that a total of about 107,000 homes had been lost due to the conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh.

Azerbaijan - Health

As part of the former Soviet Union, Azerbaijan has had to develop and maintain its own health care system and standards. As of 1999, there were an estimated 3.6 doctors and 9.7 hospital beds per 1,000 people. In 1999, the total expenditure on health was estimated at 1.8% of GDP.

Azerbaijan's infant mortality rate for 2000 was 13 per 1,000 live births and the total fertility rate was 2.0 per woman. In 1998 the maternal mortality rate was 43 per 100,000 live births. As of 1999, the country immunized an estimated 99% of one-year-old children against diphtheria, pertussis, and tetanus and 99% against polio.

The overall death rate in 2002 was estimated at 10 per 1,000 inhabitants. Thousands of lives were lost between 1989 and 1992 when the country was at war with Armenia. Few cases of AIDS have been reported in the last few years. In 1996, two cases were reported; the total number of people living with AIDS/HIV was under 500 in 1999. Diphtheria, tuberculosis, hepatitis A, and diarrheal and acute respiratory infections have been serious public health problems. There have also been outbreaks of anthrax, botulism, cholera, tetanus, and malaria. Measles and tuberculosis still remain in this country despite a high incidence of vaccination for one-year-old children. In 1999, the incidence of tuberculosis was 62 per 100,000 people.

Azerbaijan - Social development

The disintegration of the Soviet economy led to economic decline in Azerbaijan, with falling living standards and rising unemployment. The minimum wage was raised several times, but it still does not provide adequately for a worker and family. A decent living can only be assured by the "safety net" of the extended family structure. Health and safety standards are often ignored in the workplace.

Unemployment benefits were introduced in 1991. Contributions in the amount of 2% of payroll are made by employers. Unemployment benefits are paid for 26 weeks, with additional weeks provided for every year worked over 25 years. The maximum allowable time period to receive benefits is 52 weeks. The amount of benefits provided ranges from 55% to 75% of average earnings. Benefits are suspended if the applicant refuses two job offers. Old age and disability pension and survivor benefits are provided. Workers' compensation provides both short-term disability benefits and pensions.

Women nominally enjoy the same legal status as men and are underrepresented in government and higher levels of the work force. Although women receive opportunities for education, work, and political activity, social traditions tend to keep them in subordinate positions. Violence against women is a serious problem especially in rural areas. The government is committed to protecting the rights of children.

Ethnic tensions and anti-Armenian sentiment are still strong. Many Armenians have either been expelled or emigrated. It is estimated that only 10,000–20,000 Armenians continue to reside in Azerbaijan. Other minorities, such as the Kurds and the Turks, also report problems of discrimination. The constitution provides for freedom of assembly, religion, and speech, but these rights are often restricted by the government. Azerbaijan's human rights record remains poor. Excessive force was used by police, and the judicial system was inefficient and corrupt. Prison conditions remain harsh.

Azerbaijan - Economic development

Rapid development of the Azeri economy in the former USSR was based on the expansion of both its industrial sector, led by oil-related industries, and its agricultural sector, led by grape, tobacco, and cotton production. With grape and wine production weakened by the effects of Gorbachev's anti-alcoholism campaign in the 1980s, and much of the country's industrial sector afflicted by technological obsolescence, overall economic growth in the republic had already begun to decline by 1989, when NMP dropped 6%. Real gross domestic product (GDP) contracted by almost 60% from 1990 to 1995. However, in late 1990s, foreign investment in the country's oil and natural gas sectors opened a period of steady growth. Key strategies of the Azeri government to bring about economic revitalization have included both an economic restructuring program as well as efforts to expand its economic ties to countries beyond the former Soviet Union. To the latter end, Azerbaijan joined the Economic Cooperation Organization set up by Iran, Pakistan, and Turkey to promote trade among Muslim countries. It was also the first of the former Soviet republics to become a member of the Islamic Development Bank, which provides potential access to financing for programs related to agriculture, construction, training, and food aid. In 2002, economy's prospects brightened considerably with progress made on its two major pipeline projects designed to connect the Caspian Sea to the Turkish Mediterranean to provide oil and gas for the European and North American markets, the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan Export Oil Pipeline (BTC) and the Baku-Tbilisi-Erzrum Gas Pipeline. The BTC particularly received an important impetus when the Azeri government came out as a strong ally of the United States in its War on Terror.

The restructuring program in Azerbaijan has been similar to those of other countries in the former USSR. Its main points include stabilization measures (price liberalization, introduction of national currency, and establishment of an exchange rate stabilization fund); introduction of new legislation regarding privatization, foreign investment, and employment; fiscal and monetary reform (including introduction of a VAT and controls on government expenditures); civil service reform; and development of the banking sector. Four committees on antitrust, support for enterprises, state property, and land reform have been established to oversee the implementation of reform legislation. Privatization of the state enterprise sector is moving at a slow pace. Particular attention is being directed at modernizing those strategic sectors of the economy with the greatest potential for export growth, particularly the oil industry and, to a lesser extent, textile production; the role of foreign investment is seen as pivotal in these areas.

With construction on the BTC pipeline scheduled to begin in March 2003, and the real prospect of an increase in the country's oil production by a factor of almost 350% by 2005, clear progress can be seen on the strategy to develop into oil and gas resources in partnership with foreign investment.

Since 1994, the Azerbaijan parliament has ratified 22 other PSCs, 19 of which were still operative in 2003. Virtually every major oil company in the world is a player in Azerbaijan, including over 90 American companies resident in Baku in 2002. The US State Department estimates that for the period 2002– 2005 opportunities for sales of upwards of $10 billion will be available in association with the expansion of AIOC's offshore oil and gas production. Macroeconomic stability has also been a clear achievement with the government's tight fiscal and monetary policies producing low consumer price inflation rates in 2000 and 2001 of 1.8% and 1.5%, respectively, according to IMF staff reports, after two years of actual declines in the price level in 1998 and 1999, of -0.8% and -8.5%, respectively.

Economic reforms in Azerbaijan have come increasingly under the supervision of increasingly under the conservative supervision of the IMF and the World Bank, which have also taken aim at the problem of pervasive corruption in the administration of taxes and custom duties. In 2002, Azerbaijan was under a three-year Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility (PRGF) program with the IMF, the objectives of which include establishing financial discipline in the energy sector, and increasing efficiency and transparency in the operations of the Ministry of Taxation and the State Customs Committee, and developing a comprehensive anticorruption program.

In March 2002, Azerbaijan reached agreement with the World Bank for a second Structural Adjustment Credit (SAC-II) program, funded at $60 million. If implemented, the IMF and World Bank programs would greatly improve the investment climate in Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan's two privatization programs since its transition to a free market economy have faltered on the lack security and market transparency. The first, from 1996 to 1998, focused on small and medium-sized enterprises was hindered by lack of resources to properly prepare assets for privatization and insufficient information about these enterprises. A presidential decree of August 2000 opened up case-by-case sales of some of the country's largest enterprises, and in March 2001 additional decrees were issued identifying about 450 enterprises to be privatized during the second privatization program. Progress continues to be slow, however. Attempts to privatize large state enterprises, such as the Azerboru pipe facility, failed for lack of qualified bidders, although by January 2002 the government had succeeded in placing the Baku electrical distribution network under the long-term private management of a Turkish firm, Barmek Holdings. There has been no substantial progress in privatizing the important telecommunications sector. The private sector's contribution to the economy does continue to grow due to both the first privatization program and to land reform. Official statistics placed the private sector's contribution to GDP at over 70% for 2002, although independent economic observers estimate this share at closer to 50 to 60%, according to the US State Department.

The pursuit of development plans remains hampered by ongoing political conflicts in the country. The border between Azerbaijan and Armenia, still closed in 2003, limits vital trade with Turkey, not to mention the overall economic benefits of a lasting peace between the two countries. Azerbaijan's potential for economic development based on both its natural and human resources remains high, but the challenges posed by both external and external politics which have eaten at the supporting infrastructure, tangible and intangible, remain quite formidable.