Azernews.Az

Azerbaijan has achieved the level of poverty defined for 2015, Minister of Economic Development Shahin Mustafayev said in his speech at a conference on the results of national consultations on the Millennium Sustainable Development for the period after 2015 between the Government of Azerbaijan and the United Nations.

According to the minister, as a result of targeted social and economic policy in the last ten years, GDP has increased 3.4-fold, its per capita share - three-fold, industrial production - 2.8-fold, income of the state budget - by 19 times, while the ratio of the budget deficit to GDP did not exceed one percent.

"Favorable environment established in Azerbaijan for business and investment has secured investments in the amount of $144.4 billion from 1995," Mustafayev said.

In general, over the past ten years, investments in non-oil sector have increased by 18.7 times, whereas domestic investment - 22.1-fold.

"These developments have enabled implementation in the country of tangible measures to solve the problem of poverty. While in 2002, the poverty rate was at 46.7 percent, in 2012, it dropped to six percent. Thus, the country has already reached the level of poverty defined for 2015," the minister said.

The concept of "Azerbaijan 2020: A Vision into the Future" identifies the creation of opportunities for enterprise development, improvement of business environment, increase of intellectual and technological level of the economy, increase of competitiveness of local goods as main objectives.

"Over the past ten years, the number of created jobs in the country has exceeded 1.1 million, including 869,000 jobs in the country's districts. Thus, the unemployment rate has fallen to 5.2 percent," Mustafayev said.