A Technical Assistance grant worth of $ 1,091,840 will be renedered to the State Oil Fund of Azerbaijan by the U.S.Trade and Development Agency (USTDA) to support Institutional Capacity Building of the Fund.

The grant agreement was signed on May 19, 2004 in Baku by H. E. Mr. Reno Harnish, the U.S.Ambassador to Azerbaijan and Mr. Samir Sharifov, Executive Director of SOFAZ, and witnessed by H.E. Mr. Hafiz Pashayev, the Ambassador of the Republic of Azerbaijan to the United States and Rachel Turner, USTDAâ€^TMs Country Manager for the Caucasus.

The scope of technical assistance envisaged by the grant agreement includes:
- reviewing and refining current asset and risk management guidelines and policies
- building performance measurement capacity and external manager selection and performance evaluation criteria
- selection and implementation of portfolio management software
- legal advisory (or legal support)
- preparation of operations procedures of the Fund, as well as training of Fundâ€^TMs personnel.

Terms of reference of the technical assistance were submitted by SOFAZ to USTDA in 2003 and agreed upon in early 2004.

TDA will announce tender to select a specialzied U.S. consultancy firm (under TDA grant conditions only the U.S. firms are eligible) to advise SOFAZ on its capacity building needs.