The growth in non-oil sector in Azerbaijan amounted to 15.3 percent over the past six months of this year, which is the result of work done so far, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said, inaugurating a salt refinery near the Masazyr Lake, AzerTAj state news agency reported.
Today indeed very significant events take place in the economic life of Azerbaijan. We can say that today the foundation of a new sphere of industry is laid in Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan will already produce high-quality salt. The establishment of this plant is a logical result of the ongoing economic policy in Azerbaijan. Our goal is to develop Azerbaijan's economy comprehensively, diversify it. All the targets in the economic sphere are implemented," said President Ilham Aliyev.
The President said that Azerbaijan has created a new modern manufacturing industry, which is one of the main directions of economic policy.
"The establishment of this plant has several goals. Firstly, Azerbaijan has created a new modern manufacturing industry, which is one of the pillars of our economic policy. The most modern equipment has been established at the plant, technological process exceeds world standards. Of course, all these works will allow processing salt in Azerbaijan at the world level for many years. On the other hand, the creation of the plant means the production of competitive products, which is also one of the directions of our policy. We want all products manufactured in Azerbaijan to be competitive, meet domestic needs and at the same time, strengthen the export potential of Azerbaijan," said the Head of State.
The question of opening new jobs is solved at the plant, the President said. "This is also one of the directions of our policies. Jobs are intensively opened, citizens are employed in all regions of Azerbaijan. With putting the plant into operation, Azerbaijan will be salt exporting country and the salt will completely meet domestic needs. This will allow us to further strengthen local production, reduce dependence on imports, and thus, more successfully moving Azerbaijan forward. These factors indicate that all of our initiatives in the economic sphere give excellent results. At the same time, as noted here today, this salt is very important for human health. Citizens of Azerbaijan will already consume iodized, i.e., processed, refined salt," said Ilham Aliyev.