On August 11, 2005 Executive Director of the State Oil Fund of the Republic Azerbaijan, Chairman of the National Committee on EITI Mr. Samir Sharifov paid a visit to Kazakhstan at the invitation of the Government of Kazakhstan. The visit was specially assigned by the President of Azerbaijan Mr. Ilham Aliyev and was aimed to assist the Government of Kazakhstan in implementation of the Transparency Initiative in extractive industries of Kazakhstan.

In the course of the meetings with the Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Mr. Shkolnik and the Minister of Finance Mr. Dunayev, Mr. Sharifov informed the officials about the experience of Azerbaijan in implementation of the Transparency Initiative. He outlined that unlike the other countries which also joined EITI, the Government of Azerbaijan together with local and foreign extractive companies (oil and gas) already prepared and made public the second report on the Transparency Initiative. Mr. Sharifov expressed readiness of the Government of Azerbaijan to assist the government of Kazakhstan in introduction of the EITI implementation mechanism, which was jointly developed and implemented successfully by the EITI Committee, non governmental organizations and local and foreign extractive companies in Azerbaijan. Furthermore he underlined the special attention of the President of Azerbaijan to the transparent and efficient management of oil revenues.

In Astana, Mr. Sharifov made a special presentation on the EITI experience of Azerbaijan for representatives of the Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources and mass media and responded to the questions of journalists on the subject.

Mr. Shkolnik informed the counterpart about the establishment of the Governmental Commission on EITI pursuant to the announcement of the President of Kazakhstan Mr. Nursultan Nazarbayev to join the EITI on June 15, 2005. He also pointed out that Azerbaijan is the only country successfully implementing Transparency Initiative and the Government of Kazakhstan has adopted the model of Azerbaijan in EITI implementation. He expressed his gratitude to the government of Azerbaijan for its assistance and accepting the invitation of the Government Kazakhstan.