Sahib Mamedov: “In case of worsening of crisis in 2009 some investment projects will be suspended in 2009 and construction orders will freeze or be completely annulled in 2010 in Azerbaijan”

As Azerbaijani economy is not thus integrated with the world economy deep depression is not felt in our country, said chairman of the League of protection of labor rights of citizens Sahib Mamedov while commenting on the influence of the global economic crisis on our country.

He noted however that it is incorrect to say that we are still not affected by implications of economic depression. “In this sense, depression has covered not only economic and financial spheres, but also the labor market”.

According to him, enterprises are shutdown, workers are dismissed or reduction of staff is planned throughout the world. Such a process also takes place in Azerbaijan, he said, though in an unopen form, as by some estimates, the labor market of Azerbaijan is in an informal sector by 60%.

“And mostly employees in this sphere are now dismissed. This occurs primarily in construction, especially of residential and non-residential buildings.”

Tenseness is felt in this sphere. Construction boom tends to decline. It can not be said that construction of new houses has stopped. It is going on. But people lose their jobs on the background of the developings, as these jobs are not fixed in any statistical bodies, as these employees, did not conclude any labor contracts with their employers and therefore, they are in the informal sphere, therefore, such a decline is not fixed in the statistical data. Yet, this process is going on”.

According to Mamedov, a large infrastructure, including transport, production of building materials, retail and wholesale trade of these materials and so on is connected with construction.

“Crisis is already felt in this sphere, which has led to reduction in jobs in the construction infrastructure.

The labor market had been in a bad state in Azerbaijan before the crisis. We have excessive labor powers and in this connection most of it is exported. Most of our citizens are in other countries as labor migrants. Still we have excessive work powers, therefore, our market is strained and tensions are growing on the background of all these processes.

There is another side of the problem. We have some construction companies, which have grown fast and become giants. They are working throughout the whole republic. But they mostly work at the expense of the state orders. They have won tenders by some or other ways, getting many orders estimated at billions of dollars through the past few years. Now, if not the next year but in 2010, if this process continues (I mean the drop in price on oil and deepening of the global crisis), all these orders will either freeze or be eliminated completely. Then tens of thousands of people will lose their jobs. Azerbaijan will also face this problem. But, undoubtedly, in 2009 the number of orders will drop significantly.

/Day.Az/