OREANDA-NEWS. February 24, 2009. At the new office of AZEL located at the R.Behbudov street, 71 prerss-conference devoted to Azerbaijan Corporate Governance Project  (ACGP) results was held. 

At the meeting took part Chairman of Supervisory Board of AZEL  Igor Yakovenko,  Chairman of Management Board of AZEL  Rasim Ibrahimov, Senior Manager of  IFC in europe and central asia   Tomasz Telma, ACGP Project Manager Carolin Braight, Program Officer SECO Naila Safarova, representatives of mass-media.

AZEL, a biggest system integrator and service provider based in Baku, has joined Azerbaijan Corporate Governance Project in 2007. Funded by the Swiss Governments’ State Secretariat for Economic Affairs and implemented by International Finance Corporation (IFC), the Project has been helping local companies and banks to enhance operations and increase their ability to attract financing and investment. In addition to general corporate governance consulting on issues of Supervisory and Management Board functions, shareholders rights protection, transparency and disclosure, the Project provides consultations on topics related to risk management, internal control and internal audit, financial reporting and other related topics.

As a result of participation in corporate governance improvement program a Supervisory Board and a Management Board with distinct responcibilities were established in the Company. The Internal Audit Committee was established as well. The main responcibilities of Commitee include reviewing the work of the internal auditors, overseeing the adequacy of the Company's internal controls and reviewing the Company's financial statements and the work of its external audit and reporting on their adequacy to the Management Board.

During his report Tomasz Telma noted that " AZEL was elected as pilot company for ACGP project because AZEL is a leading IT company and one of the most actively developing companies in Azerbaijan. Also, he expressed its hope that successfully completion of project will allow  to AZEL to achieve better results in its business".

“AZEL has made important strides in its corporate governance. The company’s commitment to improving its corporate governance is very impressive and will definitely contribute to the company’s future successes”, said Caroline Bright, ACGP Manager.

According to Mr. Igor Igor Yakovenko, President of AZEL: “For AZEL, this deal is a very important sign of recognition from a reputable international partner. The IFC support will not only help us to increase volume of sales and expand our activities in the IT market, but will also confirm our reputation of reliable and financially stable partner. Once again we would like to express our thanks to IFC for their support and to ensure our readiness to follow their recommendations and to make our business policy transparent and disclosed.”