Azernews.Az

By Amina Nazarli

A plenary session of the Azerbaijani Parliament started on March 17.

Prime Minister Artur Rasizade, taking part in the session, presented a report on the activities of the Cabinet of Ministers in 2016, Trend reported.

Rasizade, firstly speaking about the financial sector, said that the country’s Financial Stability Board has prepared a plan of measures to solve problems in the financial and banking sector of the country, and the relevant state bodies have already begun to implement it.

“Difficulties in the financial and banking sector of Azerbaijan in 2016 give grounds to characterize it as a difficult year,” the prime minister said. "The unsatisfactory work of a number of banks, the criminal activities of the leadership of a systemically important bank -- the International Bank of Azerbaijan, further exacerbated the situation."

Taking into account the current situation, he said, the Financial Market Supervisory Body was created to improve the state administration in the financial sector and ensure macroeconomic stability.

"Having studied the existing problems, the Financial Stability Board has already prepared a plan of measures and the relevant state bodies have already begun to implement it," Rasizade said.

The prime minister also touched upon the situation on the world oil market. "As a result of a sharp decline in world prices for hydrocarbons, Azerbaijan's revenues from their exports have significantly decreased," he said.

Speaking about the economic achievements, the PM stressed that over 400 industrial enterprises were opened in Azerbaijan last year. Production in the industrial sector grew by five percent in 2016, according to the prime minister.

Rasizade added that the production in the agriculture sector grew by 2.6 percent.

"Last year over 15 billion manats ($8.8 million) investments were invested in fixed assets, and as much as 45 percent fell to the non-oil sector," he said.

The Prime Minister reminded that last year the National Entrepreneurship Support Fund allocated 190 million manats ($111 million) for financing of projects of local business entities.

"Agricultural producers received subsidies for 180 million manats ($105 million), and 32 large farms were granted with soft loans for 70 million manats ($41 million). As a result of the measures the production of many types of agricultural products increased, and agro products worth about $ 400 million ($234 million) were exported," Rasizade said.

The prime minister further said that more than 800 kilometers of highways were laid, 14 bridges were built, 56 power stations were built or repaired and 25,000 kilometers of electric lines were laid in 2016.

“In general, over the past 13 years, the real volume of Azerbaijan's GDP and investments in fixed assets have tripled, export of non-oil products has grown by 3.3-fold, and average wages by 6.4-fold,” Rasizade said.

Speaking about the defense sector, the prime minister said that provision of the Azerbaijani Armed Forces with modern weapons of foreign and domestic production ensures not only the achievement of tactical goals, but also the fulfillment of strategic tasks.

Rasizade also talked about the April battles of 2016, when Armenia committed another armed provocation against Azerbaijan. By conducting a successful counterattack operation, the Azerbaijani army inflicted a crushing blow to the enemy and liberated a part of the Azerbaijani lands from the occupation.

“The April battles is a great military victory of Azerbaijan. A decisive response to another provocation of the Armenian aggressors demonstrated the high fighting spirit of our army. Military operations showed that, in addition to negotiations, there is also a military way of liberating the occupied lands. In addition, it demonstrated the morale of Azerbaijani soldiers,” the prime minister said.

Armenia broke out a lengthy war against Azerbaijan laying territorial claims on its South Caucasus neighbor. Since a war in the early 1990s, Armenian armed forces have occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan's territory, including Nagorno-Karabakh and seven surrounding regions. More than 20,000 Azerbaijanis were killed and over 1 million were displaced as a result of the large-scale hostilities.

Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and surrounding districts.

MP Siyavush Novruzov, addressing the meeting said that the Central Bank of Azerbaijan (CBA) should take measures in connection with the high interest rates on loans set by banks.

“Banks issue loans at such high interest rates that a citizen, who receives a loan cannot use these funds to engage in any kind of entrepreneurial activity. The central bank issues loans to banks at 15 percent, but banks issue loans to citizens at 25-29 percent. Let banks earn 6-7 percent. Otherwise they apply the interest rates that they want. It is not right,” Novruzov explained.

The MP urged the CBA to take measures to solve this problem.

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

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