Azernews.Az

By Nigar Orujova

The world underwent a variety of events and different processes last year. Tensions ran high in the world because there were bloody clashes and wars both in the Middle East and Europe. A new phase of the financial and economic crisis set in. In Azerbaijan, however, all developments went ahead in a positive direction in 2014.

This was said by President Ilham Aliyev in an opening address at a conference held at the Heydar Aliyev Center on outcomes of the first year of implementation of the “State Program on socio-economic development of regions of Azerbaijan in 2014-2018.”

“Azerbaijan is confidently moving forward and has achieved sustainable developments so far. Azerbaijan is an island of stability and a place of development in the world, because there is unity between the people and the government in Azerbaijan and all our initiatives are supported by the people,” the president stressed.

The public and political situation in Azerbaijan is stable, major investments are made in the economy and very important steps are taken to diversify the economy, President Aliyev said.

“Despite the growing challenges in the world, the confident and successful developments of Azerbaijan will continue. The Middle East is experiencing a political and military crisis. The situation in Europe is deteriorating. The situation in Ukraine has become even more tense. The oil price has significantly dropped. So these and other factors that have taken place in the past year are, in fact, the factors going in a negative direction,” he said.

Despite that, Azerbaijan is developing and the well-being of the population is improving. The regions are developing dynamically. Azerbaijan is implementing giant energy and transport projects, the head of state said.

The first state program on the socioeconomic development of the regions, which was successfully implemented over five years was originally adopted in February 2004. In 2009 Azerbaijan was already firm on its feet and implementation of the second program was also successful.

“By 2018, we have to successfully complete the third program as well, even though, I want to say again, the negative developments around us have completely changed the panorama. It is not ruled out that tensions in the region will further increase in the future because there will be threats that we have not seen before. It is possible that due to the economic and financial crisis, there may be even tougher challenges waiting for us. But we have to be prepared,” President Aliyev said.

The president noted that economic power enables Azerbaijan to express itself on the political scene without fear and protect its national interests.

The president also talked about Azerbaijan’s achievements of the last decade in economics, politics, infrastructure, culture, etc.

In his closing remarks, President Aliyev expressed confident that the program for 2015 will be successfully implemented.

"The country should have a stable macroeconomic environment to bring our plans into effect,” Aliyev said.

The president emphasized that the national currency manat is stable.

“Today one manat is more valuable and expensive than one euro. Of course, to address social issues this is a positive factor. However, we need to approach all issues carefully. For our export potential it is not very positive issue. Therefore, I believe that further growing of the manat compared to the euro is not a positive fact. I believe that a macroeconomic situation will be created only if one manat stands at one euro level,” the head of state stressed.

The head of state also noted the non-oil sector development as a priority saying the development of entrepreneurship plays a positive role here.

Speaking about banking sector, the president said the main goal of the sector should be aimed at creating new businesses, and new jobs.

Last year was the year of industry in Azerbaijan. Industry liberated the country from the oil dependence and industrial enterprises, technoparks have been created around the country.

"Several industrial clusters have been created. Meanwhile, large and giant industrial facilities will be built. In particular, I want to mention here the construction of metallurgical complex, as it will be a kind of new industry for us, there are raw materials and export opportunities are wide enough,” he added.

Export potential will be the driving force of the economy of Azerbaijan in the future, the head of state stressed.

“Oil no longer prevails in our gross domestic product. However, natural resources create most of our export capacity. We need to enter foreign markets with the finished product. We are doing it now and will go on,” the president said.

“We need to work in the traditional markets. We should be more active and have broader scope. We need to be present in the new markets, both regional and international. We have to go to the European markets,” Aliyev stressed.

Azerbaijan needs to secure itself completely with food and export it, he said.

“Azerbaijan is rapidly developing tourism sector by constructing new hotels, recreation areas and recreation areas of international level,” Aliyev noted.

Today there is a unique Azerbaijani model of development, he said. "We can already speak about this, because this model as an example, indeed, should be of interest to any country. There is a political and economic reform, an independent policy, inter-religious dialogue, and high level national and religious tolerance.”

The head of state concluded that Azerbaijan will continue to develop successfully.

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Nigar Orujova is AzerNews’s staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @o_nigar

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