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Azerbaijan’s President: Our foreign exchange resources are five times higher than external debt

21 September 2019 21:48 (UTC+04:00)
Azerbaijan’s President: Our foreign exchange resources are five times higher than external debt

By Trend

“Our foreign exchange resources are five times higher than the external debt,” said Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev, addressing the ceremony to mark 25th anniversary of Contract of the Century and Oil Workers Day on September 20, Trend reports.

The head of state noted that oil revenues have been used in the development of the country's economy.

“We have channelled them into that. The infrastructure has been completely upgraded. Remember the state of our infrastructure in 1994 and see what state it is in now. At that time, even half of Baku could not receive natural gas. In the regions, this was completely out of the question. Today, gasification in Azerbaijan constitutes 96 percent. We have built gas lines to the most remote mountain villages, and this process continues. I have asked the State Oil Company not to stop this work. Of course, 96 percent is a very large figure. Only a handful of countries conduct gasification at such a level. But we must continue it. In those years, half of our country was left without electricity. There was a shortage even in Baku. Sometimes even television channels stopped working at midnight so that people used less electricity because there was a shortage of it. Today, about 3,000 megawatts of new generation capacities have been created, and we not only provide for ourselves, but also export,” said President Aliyev.

“The roads were in terrible condition. According to the estimates of the Davos World Economic Forum, Azerbaijan today is in 34th place globally in terms of the quality of roads. Drinking water was a huge problem. Today, 75 percent of the population is constantly provided with drinking water, and this process continues,” he said.

The head of state noted that more than a hundred settlements have been built for the internally displaced.

“We got rid of tent camps back in 2007. Due to what? Due to the Oil Fund! Where does the money for the oil fund come from? From the implementation of the Contract of the Century! We have provided new homes, new apartments to hundreds of thousands of IDPs. Benefits to the families of martyrs and war veterans, allowances, apartments, cars, etc. That is, the Contract of the Century has brought huge benefits and we have used the funds properly. Oil Fund’s revenues can only be used within the budget, so the people of Azerbaijan through their representatives in the Milli Majlis take part in the distribution of these funds,” added the president.

He noted that the social infrastructure has been completely reconstructed.

“More than 3,200 schools and 640 hospitals have been built and renovated. New sports facilities have been constructed. Azerbaijan has become a space-faring nation. We have three satellites. Using revenues, we keep our public debt at a low level. It accounts for only 19 percent of the gross domestic product. Our foreign exchange resources are five times higher than the external debt. Where else is this possible? There are such countries, but there are not many of them. We could talk about the benefits of the Contract of the Century for a long time. Revenues from the sale of oil will continue to be spent primarily on social issues, infrastructure projects and diversification of the economy in order to ensure the long-term and sustainable development of Azerbaijan,” he added.

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