“Azerbaijan’s quitting the EITI has not affected other fields either”, Babayev said.
The deputy minister noted that the EITI has changed to a tool of pressure: “We has held discussions about the EITI. Azerbaijan has become one of main participants of the EITI. Unfortunately, we observe in recent times that the organization has left its goals and became a tool of pressure. Azerbaijan was the first country monitored. We did not listen pretension about transparency. The pretensions were about other fields. There were intentions of pressure against Azerbaijan. Therefore, Azerbaijan left the EITI. However, it created the Committee on the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative. Azerbaijan supports transparency in extractive industries. Despite left the EITI, Azerbaijan disclosures relevant reports. Companies operating in extractive industry are ready to build operate transparently and announced it”.
Babayev noted that campaigns against Azerbaijan after left the EITI were not effective: “Azerbaijan has reached agreements on attraction of investments in the Southern Gas Corridor. World Bank, ADB and EBRD were applied not to allocate loans to Azerbaijan. However, WB and ADB allocate loans to Azerbaijan. Other European banks will also allocate loans”.
He added that Azerbaijani government is ready to discuss any issue about transparency in extractive industry raised by representatives of civil society.