Azernews.Az

By Gulgiz Dadashova

Azerbaijan has started developing the "Azerbaijan 2020: Vision into the future" concept that is aimed at increasing exports of the non-oil sector of the economy, poverty reduction, etc. since late 2012.

The National Group for the Concept Implementation held its first meeting on Sept.10 to discuss the issues pertaining to the concept realization, which stipulates inclusion of Azerbaijan into the group of high-income countries.

Economic Development Minister Shahin Mustafayev said at the meeting that the Azerbaijani economy is capable of surpassing the targets set out in the concept.

According to the minister, the Azerbaijani economy must enter a new phase of its development by 2020 by becoming competitive, highly productive and export-oriented.

"The concept envisages annual growth of non-oil GDP by 7 per cent, bringing the GDP per capita to $13,000, and non-oil exports per capita up to $1,000," the minister said. "These goals are pragmatic and very real. The results of the first months of this year show that we are able not only to achieve, but also improve the targets. As of the first seven months the GDP growth in Azerbaijan amounted to 5 per cent and non-oil GDP growth 10.5 per cent. The amount of investments into the economy of the country for the seven months exceeded 27.2 per cent for the same period of last year and non-oil exports increased by 10 per cent."

Mustafayev said that over the six months of its activity, the group received proposals to prepare 166 documents including state programs, strategies and concepts which should be implemented under the concept.

Mustafayev assigned all government agencies to work out and submit their strategic plans within the framework of the concept implementation.

He said that the Ministry of Taxes, the State Securities Committee and the Central Bank of Azerbaijan have already presented their plans.

"The main goal of the concept is to provide socio-economic development of the country, as all the eight branches of the concept are targeted exactly at the improvement of the socio-economic development," Mustafayev said.

The concept envisions 250 activities, among which 96 are targeted at the human capital development, and 66 are aimed at the creation of a competitive economy and the rest at the development of other sectors, he said.

The minister said further that about $4 billion has been invested in the creation of large enterprises in Azerbaijan in the past three to four years.

"We are talking about 20 of the largest enterprises established in recent years," the minister said.

"Industrial production of poultry meat has increased 4.6 times in the past 10 years. As a result of dairy plant construction, the production capacity in milk processing has doubled and this will increase Azerbaijan's exports in this sector in the coming years," Mustafayev said.

Mustafayev said that in total, investments in the country's economy have exceeded $132 billion in the past 10 years.

The key strategic vision of the concept is to take into consideration the existing opportunities and resources to achieve sustainable economic growth and social prosperity in Azerbaijan, ensure effective state governance, rule of law and complete exercise of all human rights and freedoms, and reach a development stage characterized by an active role of civil society in the country's public life.

The paramount task currently on the agenda is to speed up economic diversification, maintain rapid non-oil sector growth regardless of the level of oil revenues, increase competitiveness and expand export opportunities.

Over the period covered by the concept, Azerbaijan's population will increase by an average of 1.1 per cent a year to reach 10.2 million by 2020.

According to the goals of the concept, Azerbaijan then will be an economically and politically developed and competitive country. Azerbaijan will be a country with high population incomes, minimum unemployment rate, highly developed human capital, a sound environment and extensive opportunities for every citizen.

In 2020, according to the World Bank's gross national income classification, Azerbaijan will become a "high average income country" with plans to advance further among "high human development" countries of the UNDP human development report.

From the standpoint of economic development, Azerbaijan will advance from being a regional leader to become a highly competitive participant in the system of international economic relations. To accomplish that goal, the country will avail itself of the advantageous geographical location and broad potential to turn into a regional commercial center with the per capita volume of non-oil exports of $1,000.