"OUT OF MANY NOMINATED CANDIDATES FOR THIS AWARD, THE STATE OIL FUND WAS SELECTED"

The United Kingdom, Norway and Azerbaijan governments made a joint statement during the 15th session of the UN High-level Committee on South-South Cooperation.

The joint statement informs on the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) and its successful implementation in Azerbaijan. The statement especially underlines the fact of the State Oil Fund of the Republic of Azerbaijan (SOFAZ) won the 2007 UN Public Service Award.

"It gives us great pleasure to inform that the State Oil Fund of Azerbaijan, which leads the implementation of the Initiative in Azerbaijan, won the prestigious 2007 UN Public Service Award in the category of "Improving transparency, accountability and responsiveness in the Public Service". Out of many nominated candidates for this Award, the State Oil Fund was selected, which in our view, clearly demonstrates the success of Initiative."

The statement emphasises the importance of regional cooperation. "We can take the example of the cooperation between Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan, where Azerbaijan shared its EITI experiences with Kazakhstan. We hope to witness more of these kind of regional cooperation initiatives."