President Ilham Aliyev: Azerbaijan’s main objective is to diversify its economy

The details were added (the first version was posted at 10:50) Azerbaijan, Baku, April 8 / Trend / President Aliyev said Azerbaijan is a landlocked and therefore in order to export its oil and gas, it needed to build pipelines. "And I think that was the biggest challenge in the end of 1990s, and the beginning of this century, and that challenge was successfully met. Today we have a diversified network of pipelines, 7 oil and gas pipelines which transport Azerbaijani oil and gas to international and European markets," he said. According to President Aliyev, at the same time, Azerbaijan has already started to play the transit role for its partners across the Caspian with respect to transportation of hydrocarbons. "But our main target since last 10 years was diversification of economy. And if you look at the economic development of Azerbaijan, we will see that our economy was one of the fastest ones growing in the world for the last 10 years. GDP grew by 300 percent, industrial production by 2.5 times," he underscored. President Aliyev said that it was managed to reduce the unemployment, and now the level of unemployment is 5.2 percent. "Ten years ago almost half of our population lived in poverty, now the poverty level is 6 percent, and budget spending grew almost by 20 times, and the inflation is around 1 percent," he said. "So these are the developments of the last 10 years, and we are also very glad with the reflection of our achievements in the assessment of the World Economic Forum, because the forum ranks Azerbaijan as 46th with respect to competitiveness of the economy, and the first for fourth consecutive year in the CIS," President Aliyev said. The President said at the same time, even during the times of economic and financial crisis, Azerbaijani economy was still growing. Even when the oil prices dropped to a very substantial level, the country's economy was still growing because the non-oil sector started to produce good results. He said all the major credit agencies Fitch, SNP and Moody's upgraded Azerbaijan's credit ratings recently, which is also a good indication of the reforms. "We are now transforming the oil wealth into human capital. And one of the main targets of the future is education. Education is the most important factor for any successful development of any country. And the investments in education, the contacts between our universities and the leading universities of the world allow us to plan our economic future, based on a very, you know, intelligent human capital," he said. President Aliyev said at the same time, Azerbaijan is now investing in new technologies, and ICT sector becomes one of the priorities in the country. "On February 1, this year, our satellite Azerspace 1 was launched successfully, and this is only the beginning of the development of the space industry in Azerbaijan," he noted. President Aliyev said these years of independence were the years of transformation, not only of political or economic system, but also years of active investments in the areas which will generate wealth in the years to come. "And to create a positive investment climate was one of the priorities in the beginning of our reforms, and for the last 10 years we got more than $130 billion worth of investments, and part of those investments are foreign investments," he underlined. President Aliyev said good investment climate, predictable political situation, stable situation in the country, and of course, regional connections, these are the main prerequisites for success for any country. "Today, one of the topics that will address is, of course, the regional cooperation, integration and I am very glad to see the results. I expected something like that, because Azerbaijan plays its role in regional cooperation," he said. According to President Aliyev, the projects that the country started in mid 1990s were aimed not only at the economic development of Azerbaijan, but also at broad regional cooperation. "We are the first country that opened the Caspian Sea for the foreign investments, and we are the first country to build a corridor from the Caspian to the Mediterranean, and from the Caspian to the Black Sea," he said. The President said those oil and gas corridors then started to play a role of geopolitical and transportation corridors as general. "We are now finalizing the implementation of one of the most important projects, which is a railroad connection between Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey," he underlined. "And I am very proud that we played one of the most important roles in implementing this project, not only with our financial resources, but also with our commitments, and political will was shown in order to implement this project," he said. President Aliyev said of course, the energy factor, which, as far as Azerbaijani government is concerned, is not a main priority any longer. But the country's energy potential plays and will play an important role in energy security of the region, and particularly in energy security of Europe, he said. "And two years ago we signed a strategic partnership memorandum on energy with the European Union, which now is being implemented," he said. President Aliyev said one of the most remarkable developments of the last period was an agreement on the project called "TANAP" (Trans-Anatolian pipeline) - the idea was generated by Azerbaijan, and supported strongly by the country's partners in Turkey and Georgia. He said Azerbaijan has undertaken the major financial commitment in order to implement this project, and to build another corridor for at least 100 years. "Taking into account huge gas reserves of Azerbaijan, and potential reserves in the region, this corridor can play its role for decades to come," he said. "And of course, regional cooperation can be achieved only in politically stable and developing countries. Today we will talk about the transportation routes, cooperation, integration, and it is possible only when all the countries involved, have the same attitude to this process. I am glad that in the region of Caspian, Central Asia and Azerbaijan, here in the region, we see the future in close ties, cooperation, integration, unification of our efforts in order to provide better life for our people and better future for our countries," the President said. At the end, President Aliyev expressed his gratitude to Founder and Executive Chairman of the World Economic Forum Klaus Schwab and his team for holding this conference and this forum in Baku. He expressed his confidence that this event will have a very serious implication on our day-to-day life, and the region will be more stable, more predictable and more prosperous. Do you have any feedback? Contact our journalist at agency@trend.az