Azernews.Az

By Amina Nazarli

Azerbaijan’s new economic strategy will significantly improve the living standard of country’s citizens, said Ali Ahmadov.

Azerbaijan’s deputy prime minister and chairman of the National Coordination Council for Sustainable Development made the remark on May 1 in Baku during a conference titled “The role of civil society in achieving sustainable development goals in Azerbaijan.”

The goal of Azerbaijan, which joined the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), is to raise the level of social welfare of the country’s citizens, he noted.

Azerbaijan’s economy has been rapidly developing in recent years, and it grew 3.5 times in the last 12 years, he said, stressing that the way civil society is organized also plays an important role in achieving the goals of sustainable development.

Ahmadov went on to say that some donors perceived the requirement of the state to ensure transparency in the activities of NGOs in Azerbaijan as an attempt to create obstacles.

The Azerbaijani government is ready to work with donor organizations that carry out activities under conditions of transparency, he said.

“Each state has the right to take measures to ensure its own security: Azerbaijani lands are occupied and over one million citizens have become refugees and internally displaced persons, and therefore international donors should first of all help solve the problems of refugees and IDPs, and liberate Azerbaijani lands from occupation. We must think about the interests of the state. I do not intend to question the activities of any donor. But part of the territory of Azerbaijan is under occupation, the country is in a state of war, and these forces the state to take certain steps. For this reason, some restrictions have been imposed on the activities of international donors,” the deputy prime clarified.

In turn, Chairman of the Council of State Support for NGOs under the President of Azerbaijan Azay Guliyev said that the implementation of the sustainable development program in Azerbaijan requires the active participation of civil society.

“Civil society institutions in Azerbaijan are sufficiently developed and have great experience in implementing international programs,” Guliyev said. “Therefore, civil society institutions should actively participate in the implementation of the sustainable development program, and monitor its implementation.”

Azerbaijan joined the new Global Goals for Sustainable Development for 2016-2030 at the Summit on Sustainable Development of the UN member states held in September 2015.

The National Coordination Council on Sustainable Development established by the presidential decree on October 6, 2016, is aimed to coordinate the tasks assigned to state bodies in connection with the obligations arising from the Global Goals for Sustainable Development.

--

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

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz