President Ilham Aliyev has approved the budget of the State Oil Fund of Azerbaijan (Sofaz) for next year, the fund said in an e-mailed statement.

Sofaz expects revenue of 11.63 billion manat ($14.85 billion) and spending of 11.35 billion manat next year. Of the total, 9.34 billion manat will be transferred to the state budget and 800 million manat will be allocated for construction of the Trans-Anatolia gas pipeline (Tanap), Sofaz said.Sofaz will spend an additional 300 million for construction of new houses for people displaced as a result of the Armenian occupation of Nagorno-Karabakh and seven adjacent districts of Azerbaijan.The fund will also continue financing the reconstruction of the Samur-Absheron irrigation system (80.2 million manat) and the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway link (132.3 million manat).Construction of a high speed fiber optic network will take 100 million manat.Almost 34 million manat will be allocated to a state program under which young Azeris are sent to best universities of the world for education.ANN.Az