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Azerbaijan had the fastest growing economy in last decade - president

Politics Materials 2 October 2014 20:47 (UTC +04:00)
Azerbaijan attaches great importance to the economic sphere, as the lack of a strong economy will complicate the promotion of humanitarian initiatives, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said Oct. 2
Azerbaijan had the fastest growing economy in last decade - president

Baku, Azerbaijan, Oct. 2

By Seymur Aliyev - Trend:

Azerbaijan attaches great importance to the economic sphere, as the lack of a strong economy will complicate the promotion of humanitarian initiatives, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said Oct. 2.

The president made the remarks at the opening ceremony of the 4th Baku International Humanitarian Forum.

He said Azerbaijan has sought to ensure its economic security, strengthen the state, and create new opportunities for Azerbaijanis living in poor conditions.

"Azerbaijan is pursuing a single-minded social policy," the president said. "Over the last 10 years the pensions and wages have repeatedly increased, and the level of poverty has sharply reduced."

President Aliyev said that in just ten years, the poverty ratio fell from 49 percent to 5.3 percent.

"It is safe to say that the fight against poverty is now coming to an end. I believe that in the next few years, the poverty in Azerbaijan will be completely eliminated as a factor," the president said.

Speaking about the fight against unemployment, Aliyev said it is foremost of humanitarian nature.

"In recent years over 1.2 million jobs have been created, the unemployment rate has fallen sharply, and now it stands below five percent," President Aliyev said. "Migrants from other countries are already coming to Azerbaijan in search of work."

He said that all this is based on a well thought-out policy, adding that the country's economic development has been very intense.

The president went on to say that in the last ten years, Azerbaijan has been the fastest growing country in the world in terms of economic development.

"All our economic indicators are positive. Over the last ten years, the economy has grown more than threefold. The external state debt stands at a very low level -8 percent of GDP," President Aliyev said.

He added that over the last decade, Azerbaijani state budget revenues grew by more than 20 times.

President Aliyev said the proper distribution of budget revenues, the implementation of social programs and infrastructure projects ensured the country's development.

"Of course, Azerbaijan is known in the world as a country rich with oil and gas reserves - this is our greatest wealth," he said. "Nevertheless, we are aware that this great wealth doesn't lead to success in some countries, on the contrary, it creates problems, leads to wars and stratification of society. But we see quite the opposite in Azerbaijan."

"Our natural resources have had a positive impact on the life of each person - paving of roads, opening of hospitals, rising wages, beautification of cities," President Aliyev added.

The head of state said Azerbaijan has acquired unique experience in the proper use of oil revenues and turning the 'black gold' into human capital.

"We have already achieved this, and our economy will develop in a multilateral format in the future," he said. "Today we make investments in new technologies. Azerbaijan today is a country with space industry, which has entered the space club."

President Aliyev said Azerbaijan attaches great importance to innovations, new technologies and the development of science, adding that Science Development Fund has been created with this purpose.

The president said that the economic development, solution of the social problems, attention to the humanitarian sphere have been the main factors ensuring Azerbaijan's successful development in recent years.

"I believe that with our work in the economic sphere, we have a positive impact on the regional cooperation process as well."

He said in many cases, Azerbaijan was the initiator of large-scale regional projects in the energy and transport spheres and undertook main economic risks," the president said. "I can say that all our initiatives - economic, energy and transport projects - have completed successfully, we have never had a failure, and I am sure that we will not have."

Aliyev added that currently, Azerbaijan is a politically and economically independent state and carries out independent foreign policy.

"This policy is supported by most countries and in order to prove this, I can just remind of Azerbaijan's election a member of the UN Security Council several years ago," he said.

Aliyev said the UN Security Council is the most influential global structure and young, independent Azerbaijan became a member of it.

"That is a proof of our role in the world and our independent foreign policy. As the major part of the international community trusts us and showed its support by voting for us."

Azerbaijan's president said if each country pursues independent foreign policy, there will be less wars and misunderstandings in the world, adding that each state should respect other states.

"Each state should respect the choices of other states. The interreligious dialogue and the humanitarian sphere are interrelated in the international arena," he said, adding that guests from over 60 countries take part in the forum.

"We gather, hold discussions, and try to find a way to turn the processes taking place in the world to a positive direction, because, today's processes are causing concern," the president said. "Radicalism and racism are increasing in both the Muslim world and Europe. "We see these tendencies, and we anxiously observe them."

He went on to say that throughout the days of the forum in Baku, the event's participants will try to outline works to prevent these tendencies.

"This is the main goal," the president said. "Because we are talking about an intercivilizational dialogue, but at the same time some statements that multiculturalism has failed or that it has no future, are disappointing."

He said these are very dangerous statements.

"I should note that the multiculturalism has no alternative in the modern world, as the vast majority of world countries are multinational states," the president said.

The president said if the multiculturalism fails, then it is obvious that its alternatives will be discrimination, racism, xenophobia, Islamophobia, anti-semitism.

"We have to raise our voice against these dangerous tendencies," he said.

The president added that naturally states should do this in the first place, but at the same time, the states' policy to a large extent is determined by the political and socio-scientific elite of every society and public opinion.

The president said none of the heads of state and government can turn a blind eye on the public opinion, or ignore it.

"Therefore, I believe that together we must reveal these issues, discuss them, and express our views on the issues of concern, and when it is needed to show the shortcomings. We as partners and as friends should express our views on these issues," he said.

The president said Azerbaijan is making efforts for development of regional cooperation, further improvement of interethnic relations, and intensification of interreligious dialogue.

"We have opportunities for this, because our past allows us to approach to these issues with great attention," he said. "We are familiar with these issues, because Azerbaijan is a multinational and multiconfessional state, and the representatives of various religions lived in the country even in the past. Today we as members of the Council of Europe and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, have undertaken this mission."

"We want even more deepening of cooperation, even more mutual understanding. We will further continue seeing our role in this," the president said.

President Aliyev went on to say that the impartial processes taking place in the Muslim world, are very concerning, since Azerbaijan is a part of the Muslim world.

"One can say that today wars and bloody clashes destroy states. This is a very serious process. We cannot observe these as an isolated process," President Aliyev said. "In the modern world we are all connected to each other."

He said the deterioration of attitude towards migrants in Europe, the statement that "multiculturalism has failed", and even greater number of votes going to political forces inclined to discrimination, should naturally trouble everyone.

"I would like to say that the forum is aimed exactly at this," President Aliyev said.

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