NEW CABINET OF MINISTERS ALMOST SAME AS OLD

C O N F I D E N T I A L BAKU 001050 SIPDIS FOR EUR/CARC AND INR FOR PAUL STRONSKI E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/03/2018 TAGS: PGOV PREL KDEM PINR AJ SUBJECT: NEW CABINET OF MINISTERS ALMOST SAME AS OLD Classified By: Political and Economic Counselor Robert Garverick, for r easons 1.4 (b,d). ¶1. (U) SUMMARY: On October 31 Azerbaijan completed the process of appointing the next cabinet of ministers after the October 15 presidential election. According to Azerbaijan's constitution, all ministers must resign after a president is inaugurated. The President then appoints a prime minister who is then approved by parliament, and then the prime minister chooses the ministers, who are then officially appointed by the President. President Ilham Aliyev re-nominated the sitting Prime Minister, who in turn re-nominated the entire slate of ministers from the previous administration save one. The President replaced his Minister of Economic Development, Heydar Babayev, who was widely seen as a reformer, with a relatively unknown technocrat, Shahin Mustafayev, who recently served at the Ministry of Taxation and the State Oil Company. END SUMMARY. ¶2. (U) After his re-inauguration on October 24, President Aliyev re-nominated 73 year-old Artur Rasizade as prime minister, and parliament confirmed him on October 28. On October 31 the GOAJ announced the re-appointment of all ministers from the previous cabinet, with the one exception of the Minister of Economic Development Heydar Babayev. Babayev had lately earned praise from the international community for spearheading a number of business-related reforms that pushed Azerbaijan to become the World Bank's top reformer of the year in the annual Doing Business Report. Babayev will be succeeded by Shahin Mustafayev, formerly of the Ministry of Taxation and the State Oil Company (SOCAR). BIO INFO FOR SHAHIN MUSTAFAYEV -------------- ¶3. (SBU) Mustafayev was born on May 6, 1956 in Noyemberyan region, which in current-day Armenia. He graduated in 1989 from the M. Voznesenki Financial-Economic Institute with a major in economics. In the 1990s he worked as an accountant at a construction company, and then at the Nasimi region Tax Inspection Agency. From 2000 to 2003 Mustafayev was the deputy chief and then chief of the Ministry of Taxes economic analysis and accounting division. In 2003 he was appointed chief accountant and economics and accountability head at the State Oil Company of the Azerbaijan Republic (SOCAR). On March 1, 2005 Mustafayev was appointed Vice President on economic issues for SOCAR. He remained in this position until September 6, 2006 when he was appointed first deputy minister at the Ministry of Taxes. Mustafayev is married, with three children. COMMENT -------------- ¶4. (C) It was widely rumored that former Minister Babayev and Kemeladdin Heydarov, the very powerful and wealthy Minister of Emergency Situations, did not get along, and Babayev had told Embassy officials that he might not be re-appointed. In contrast, commentators feel Mustafayev is backed by Heydarov, largely because the Minister of Taxes Fazil Mammadov, for whom Mustafayev worked, is considered to be closely allied with Heydarov. Embassy employees who have met Mustafayev consider him to be polite and diplomatic; he has assisted the Embassy in efforts to resolve problems related to taxation of FSN salaries. It is unclear, however, how effective -- or independent -- he will be as minister, or whether he will be able to continue a course of reform. End comment. LU