Armenia loses voting right in UBCCE

Armenia has been deprived of the right to vote in the Union of Black Sea and Caspian Confederation of Enterprises (UBCCE) due to its nonpayment of membership dues. According to a statement of the Azerbaijan-Turkey Business Association (ATİB) released on Wednesday, the decision was adopted at a regular (6th) general meeting of the ATİB held on April 5. Azerbaijan was represented at the meeting by board member Rashad Rasullu and the Director of Projects and Research Depatment of ATİB Kanan Aslanli.

The general meeting also approved amendments to the Statutes of UBCCE, according to which the new legal name of the organization was changed to "Business Black Sea Caspian - BBC". In addition, membership rules were simplified and now sectoral business associations can be full members of the organization along with centralized association.

According to the amendments to the statute, the Executive Committee of the UBCCE was granted additional rights on conducting negotiations and the receipt of new membership applications during a year. The executive committee retained the exclusive authority to approve new full and associate members at the general meeting.

The senior personnel the UBCCE for 2013-15 was approved as follows: President - TÜSİAD (Turkey), Vice-President - ATİB (Azerbaijan), Vice-President - GEC (Georgia). Board of Audit: President - TİSK (Turkey), and the members - KISH (Albania) and ICEA (Iran). So, in the next two years, the Azerbaijan-Turkey Business Association will be again represented in the UBCCE by a vice-president.

The UBCCE was founded on November 27, 2006 in Istanbul upon the ATIB's initiative in an attempt to establish economic and trade relations in the Black Sea and Caspian Sea. The inaugural meeting was attended by Afghanistan, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kazakhstan, Macedonia, Romania, Serbia and Turkey.