Azernews.Az

By Amina Nazarli

Salim Muslumov, the country’s Minister of Labor and Social Protection of Population made the remarks on November 17 at a press conference in Baku.

"There cannot be any cut in social spending, because President Ilham Aliyev's policy implies that social services should always be in the spotlight. I believe that we will not see any cuts in social spending in the future," he said.

The state is doing everything to improve the welfare of the population, according to the minister.

"Despite the difficult situation, the decline in GDP associated with the global economic crisis, we have increased social spending for the next year. We will strengthen the social position of a certain group of population. All these costs are incorporated in the draft public budget for 2017," he said.

Expenditure on social protection and social security are projected in the amount of 2.05 million manats ($1.19 million), which comprises 12.4 percent of the total budget for the next year. These costs are up by 8.2 percent as compared to the expectations for 2016.

Muslumov also stressed that disability evaluation process will take place in an electronic form in the country, which will completely eliminate the contacts between citizens and officials.

"In accordance with the presidential instructions, purposeful work is carried out in recent years to ensure the transparency of medical and social rehabilitation systems. The centralized information system of the Ministry created a subsystem for social medical examination and rehabilitation. This system allows automating the process of disability assessment," he said.

The minister added that the period, after which the disabled of second and third degree must apply for re-assessment of disability, are also renewed for five years.

For persons under 18 years, this period is three years, and for people with disabilities of the first degree disability is now determined for an indefinite period.

Muslumov further went on to say that unified electronic subsystem of calls and appointments (VEMTAS) of the Ministry will be presented at the head of the World Bank office in Washington, DC.

"Two weeks ago, when I met with representatives of the WB, they asked to show them how this system works. After the WB experts got familiarized themselves with the system, they asked us to present VEMTAS at the WB's head office in Washington, so that later this financial institute could provide it to other countries as an example," he said.

VEMTAS system allows on-line application for social assistance.

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Amina Nazarli is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @amina_nazarli

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