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Baku has hosted a meeting of the Caspian European Club (CEIBC) with chairman of the State Social Protection Fund of Azerbaijan Elman Rustamov. Considered at the meeting were issues of development of the pension system and engagement of business representatives in this segment.
Issues concerning pension system, Azerbaijan’s experience, and prospects of development of this sphere as well as issues that were of interest to CEIBC companies were discussed at the meeting. Elman Mehdiyev spoke about the activity of the State Social Protection Fund (SSPF).
He made a presentation about major aspects of the activity of the Fund. According to him, the website of the SSPF and e-government provides detailed information about the activity it carries out, an opportunity to submit reports, information about pensions management and other online services.
Over the past year the Fund carried out a large-scale work for improving the pension-related legislation. Mr. Mehdiyev provided information from a perspective of an employer as an insurer, and from a perspective of employees as insured individuals and pensioners.
According to him, e-services are available at the website both for legal and physical entities – starting from registration of companies and employees right up to online-payment. So far 700,000 people have applied online services.
He emphasized that the SSPF system has registered over 2 mln 700 thousand of employed people. They all may check their social payments at the website.
Among the major objectives set for future, Mehdiyev called the establishment of the financial sustainability of the pension system. A special concept is being worked out in this regard due to the order of President Ilham Aliyev.
Strategic goals aim at getting both employers and employees involved in the pension system. As a result of the joint work carried out together with the Ministry of Taxes, over 650,000 people were registered in the system of SSPF. He considered different reforms of the pension system and dwelled on perspective issues concerning creation of private pension funds.
The event lasted for 2 hours and the companies had a chance to speak about problems and proposals directly with the Chairman of the Fund, to get efficient answers and solutions of these problems.
Mehdiyev expressed his gratitude to the Club for the opportunity to get to know about the problems and difficulties, which businessmen face, from the primary source. A working group was created with participation of CEIBC and SSPF representatives during the meeting so that to ensure efficient solution of business problems.
Presentation of the Caspian Energy Forum was also held at the meeting. Addressing the session, Chief Executive Officer of the Caspian European Club (CEIBC) Telman Aliyev provided information about the forth-coming 1st International Caspian Energy Forum – 2014 due in Baku on April 23. According to him, the forum will be held twice a year – in Baku and in one of the CIS and EU countries. “This year is also significant since it will celebrate the 20th anniversary of the contract of the century signed under the leadership of national leader Heydar Aliyev. The 15th anniversary of the Caspian Energy journal will also be marked this year,” Telman Aliyev emphasized.
Speaking about the forum, Aliyev noted that the forum would have a one-day agenda consisting of two parts. The first part will cover the development of the oil-gas, energy and environmental sectors, while the second one is going to focus on the non-oil sector (issues of development of the financial, banking, insurance, leasing, telecommunications, tourism, machine engineering, construction and other sectors of the non-oil industry). Each session will include both a lecture and discussions.
CEIBC and SOCAR lend official support to the forum. Caspian Energy International Media Group is an organizer of the forum.
“So far, 16 government agencies have confirmed their participation in the forum as speakers,” Aliyev noted. He emphasized that CEIBC was established in June 2002 in association with Caspian Energy International Media Group and under intensive support of largest oil&gas companies operating in the Caspian-Black Sea region. Ilham Aliyev, President of the Republic of Azerbaijan, has been a chairman of CEIBC. According to Aliyev, CEIBC has promoted attraction of oil sector revenues into development of the non-oil sector since its establishment. CEIBC is operating in 50 countries worldwide, carrying out an active work in maintenance of the dialogue between government agencies and the private sector.
CEIBC honorary membership certificate was presented to Elman Rustamov, Chairman of the State Social Protection Fund of the Republic of Azerbaijan. Certificates were also presented to new companies of CEIBC. Participating in the meeting were executives of companies and representatives of a number of diplomatic agencies accredited in Azerbaijan, particularly Ambassador of Moldova in Azerbaijan Igor Bodio, Ambassador of Greece in Azerbaijan Dimitrios Tsoungas, as well as representatives of the diplomatic corps of the two countries.
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