President Ilham Aliyev honored with South-South Awards

/By AzerNews/

By Nigar Orujova

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev was honored with the 2015 South-South Awards in New York on September 26.

President Aliyev was awarded for his contributions to the improvement of the welfare of the population, his role in diminishing illiteracy and poverty, as well as actions taken in the successful implementation of the Millennium Development Goals.

Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov received the award on behalf of the president.

The South-South Awards was sponsored by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the South-South Steering Committee for Sustainable Development, International Telecommunication Union, International Organization for South-South Cooperation, as well as UN member states, agencies, and funds.

The award is given to those countries that have achieved consistent results in agriculture and food security according to UN reports, as well as having worked towards achieving UN Millennium Development Goals.

Azerbaijan has enjoyed significant economic growth since the late 2000s. The government has implemented social reforms that have increased government spending on assistance, established state programs to reduce poverty, and increased agricultural production.

Azerbaijan is one of the economically stable counties of the region despite the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict that pulls back development of the region.

According to the Davos World Economic Forum, the economy of Azerbaijan is ranked 38th in the world for competitiveness in 2014, making the country among top 40 competitive economies in the world.

The country ranks the 58th among 109 countries of the world according to the Global Food Security Index 2015. Compared to the previous year, Azerbaijan has jumped four places and is now ahead of Ukraine and follows Kazakhstan.

This year has been declared as the Year of Agriculture in Azerbaijan and thus far, agricultural production has increased by more than 7 percent.

Food security is one of the most important issues for each country, said Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev in August.

“We try to make Azerbaijan provide its own demand for food by 100 percent. There is every opportunity to achieve this – land, equipment, and funds allocated by the state," he stressed. "Let farmers efficiently use these opportunities, rapidly develop agriculture.”

The head of state is confident that Azerbaijan can fully provide its own food security. “Our policy, investments into regions, and at the same time the recent reforms, will fully provide food security. I believe such an approach should be applied to other areas as well.”

Azerbaijan was meeting the population's demands for meat products by 90 percent, poultry meat by 81 percent, eggs by 80 percent, dairy products by 75 percent, vegetable oil by 65 percent, and butter by 50 percent through local production in 2014.

The total volume of production of agricultural goods has increased by 3.4 times in Azerbaijan over the past ten years.