ASHA Bank successfully concluded its business journalism programme

PASHA Bank, one of Azerbaijan's leading banks, is pleased to report that journalists taking part in its business journalism training programme have completed a one-week educational trip to the UK. This trip marks the final stage of the Bank's project to promote best practice business journalism in Azerbaijan, which it implemented with the support of the British Council and the Thomson Foundation.

During this trip, Azerbaijani journalists visited a range of global mass media organizations, including the Financial Times, the Telegraph and the BBC, to learn how British news agencies operate and to gain one-to-one advice from their foreign counterparts. In addition, the programme participants visited the London Stock-Exchange and the Houses of Parliament. They also met Azerbaijan's Ambassador to the UK, Fahraddin Gurbanov.

The key aim of this project was to give Azerbaijan's leading business and economic journalists the unique opportunity to gain exposure to European media practices and to acquire new skills that they will then be able to apply in their day-to-day work. PASHA Bank places such projects at the heart of its Social Responsibility Programme.

Farid Akhundov, Chairman of the Board of PASHA Bank, commented: "The Bank is committed to developing Azerbaijan's capital markets, and no financial market is complete without high-quality business media. We are therefore very keen to help Azerbaijan's business journalists to gain the right skills and experience to do their job well, and we are pleased that our journalism programme has once again proved to be a success."