TODAY.AZ / Politics

Azerbaijan shows growth amid world economic downturn

13 October 2015 [15:01] - TODAY.AZ

/By AzerNews/

By Gulgiz Dadashova

Azerbaijan, an oil-rich South Caucasus nation of over 9.6 million people, has proved the efficacy of its economic development model with positive results achieved at a time when the world is facing a new economic crisis.

The country’s economy grew by 3.7 percent, which includes industrial production by 2.1 percent, non-oil industry by over 10 percent, and agriculture by 6.7 percent throughout the past nine months. These figures were provided at a meeting of the Cabinet of Ministers on October 12 dedicated to the results of socio-economic development in the first nine months of 2015 and objectives for the future, chaired by the Azerbaijani president.

As President Ilham Aliyev stated, Azerbaijan’s economy has been developing despite the ongoing crisis in the world, the sharp decrease in oil prices, baseless pressure and in some cases, provocations against the country.

The country’s population also felt positive signs in the economy as 87,000 new jobs were created in nine months, 67,000 of which are permanent.

From January to September of 2015, inflation in Azerbaijan stood at 3.7 percent, the population’s cash income increased by 5.8 percent, while $16 billion has been invested in the Azerbaijani economy from all sources.

President Aliyev said great work was done to improve the population’s social state and transparency was ensured in rendering targeted social assistance. He added that roughly 500,000 people, or 114,000 families, received targeted social assistance during the reported period.

Discussing public projects, the president noted that 34 schools, 26 kindergartens and 11 medical facilities have been constructed or renovated in the country during this period.

The president attributed the achievements to the country’s independent policy, and ensuring stability and security, while strengthening civil solidarity in Azerbaijan.

All these figures prove that the government takes great pride in economic and social stability, which is at core of state policy.

International financial institutions also confirmed the country’s economic achievements. The IMF improved the economic growth forecast for Azerbaijan to four percent in 2015, a staggering increase from the 1.8 percent it had predicted earlier. IMF has kept its forecast for economic growth unchanged at 2.5 percent for next year.

The World Bank has forecasted Azerbaijan’s annual GDP growth to stand at an average of 2.4 percent between 2015 and 2017. The growth of Azerbaijan's economy is expected to be at 1.5 percent in 2015, 2.6 percent in 2016, and 2.7 percent in 2017 according to the World Bank's June report.

The Azerbaijani government expects that in 2015, the real growth of the country’s economy will be 3.3 percent.

The president further recalled that this year significant events took place exhibiting the country’s transit capacity, noting that the first container train from China arrived in Azerbaijan and that the construction of the Azerbaijani section of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway was completed.

President Aliyev drew attention to the fact that within nine months of this year, a considerable amount of work was carried out on the Southern Gas Corridor, as well as serious steps taken to develop the Shah Deniz-2 field and implement the TANAP project.

The president said that a significant amount of work was done in the country to upgrade the army, adding that the military will be a priority in 2016 and measures will be taken to strengthen army logistics.

Economic and military capabilities further enhance Azerbaijan’s power, President Aliyev emphasized.

However, the current achievements do not mean that the global crisis is stricken from the agenda, as the South Caucasus’s biggest economy still relies on oil for a bulk of state revenues and export earnings. Despite positive signs in oil prices recently, quotes are still at a fairly low level. Under these circumstances, the positive assessment must be replaced by the most important tasks: consolidation and further measures to counter the crises.

To this end, the government intends to continue the struggle with the existing shortcomings and problems. As the president mentioned, financial discipline should be strengthened and the public should be educated to avoid many social risks, including excessive borrowing and subsequent defaults.

Aside from that, the president said, entrepreneurs should pay taxes in a timely manner, and unnecessary payments shouldn’t be demanded of them.

Reminding of the necessity to suspend the allocation of funds for projects that aren’t a priority, reviewing the structure of budgetary spending, and explaining the need to frugally spend budgetary funds, the president noted the need to further strengthen the fight against corruption, to continue systemic reforms and to expand the activity of the ASAN Service.

He also spoke about the importance of strengthening the public involvement in the fight against corruption and bribery. The president said that in order to ensure the sustainable development of the country, it is necessary to focus further attention on the development of entrepreneurship. Foreign investments should be, most of all, directed to the non-oil sector, the business climate should be improved, mechanisms should be developed to regulate inspections and the number of inspections and licenses should be significantly reduced.

Stable, fast and efficient development is impossible without solving current problems. As the president noted, there is also a need to decrease the monopolization of the market in Azerbaijan. Although the government has been working to cease monopolization for a long time and achieved particularly effective results in the consumer market, the work still needs to cover many areas.

President Aliyev said that much is still to be done in this direction.

The head of state said the fight against monopolies is important and necessary to ensure competition for all. "If there is no competition, there will not be any development or high-quality products. Let each to produce. Well, maybe our market is quite limited, then grow and produce such products so that we can sell abroad. And the state will encourage that," he stated.

President Aliyev also noted the importance of developing agriculture and industry, carrying out land reclamation and creating new cultivation areas.

Noting that the first-ever European Games have raised interest in Azerbaijan and gave a momentum to the development of the tourism sector, the president said the sporting events to be held in the coming years will be significant from this point of view.

Afterward, President Aliyev gave instructions to develop the Southern Gas Corridor in a timely manner and expressed confidence in the successful implementation of activities envisaged to be completed by late 2015.

The economic potential of Azerbaijan is very high and measures aimed at diversifying the national economy and reducing its dependence on oil have born fruit. The above-mentioned positive indicators were largely achieved precisely in the non-oil sectors and have turned into the driver of the Azerbaijani economy. The current situation in world oil markets is not promising for a speedy return to the golden years. This means that the work already being carried out for solving important problems needs to continue for a bright future.

URL: http://www.today.az/news/politics/144346.html

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