Baku, Azerbaijan, April 9
By Emin Aliyev
Azerbaijan is a small country, but only if one thinks geographically. In an economic and geopolitical sense, the country has long established itself as a major player both in the region and throughout the continent. The stability of Azerbaijan, its progressive development, which overcomes even global crisis phenomena, have long become an example for many countries of the world. It is not surprising that the experience of Azerbaijan arouses genuine interest in the world - and the participation of President Ilham Aliyev at the World Economic Forum in Davos once again showed this.
The World Economic Forum is a Swiss non-governmental organization known for holding annual meetings in Davos with the participation of business, political leaders and other influential persons. Therefore, problems are discussed on the forum are global and important from the point of view of the entire planet, and not of a single country or region.
Azerbaijan has been long participating in the forum. If at first Azerbaijan was just being assessed, today it holds a decent place among the representatives of the powers and the biggest locomotives of global processes. Moreover, it is worth remembering that in 2013, the Davos Forum was held in Baku - this was the most significant recognition of the importance and authority of Azerbaijan on the world stage.
This year the forum’s theme was “Globalization 4.0: Shaping a Global Architecture in the Age of the Fourth Industrial Revolution.” Azerbaijan, perhaps like no other country, is actively involved in what today is called globalization 4.0. Namely Azerbaijan is the driver of economic development of the entire region. It is Azerbaijan that initiates, finances and implements the most ambitious projects in the South Caucasus: these include mega projects related to the transportation of oil and gas, such as the Southern Gas Corridor (SGC) and the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars (BTK) railway. One can mention such initiatives for a long time, but even a quick glance is enough to see the huge role that Azerbaijan plays in the formation of the very global architecture.
This was stressed by President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev, during the discussions at the session on “Advancing the Belt and Road Initiative: China`s Trillion Dollar Vision”
“Creating a modern infrastructure is one of the main goals of our government,” he said. “I believe that we did the right thing by taking advantage of our geographical location and investing mainly in infrastructure, i.e. our domestic infrastructure and the infrastructure that will allow Azerbaijan the opportunity to turn into one of the international hubs. We are investing in infrastructure inside the country to build roads, highways, airports, for gasification and power generation. We have also invested in transport infrastructure. This will enable us to transport cargoes from the East to the West, from the North to the South and from the South to the North.”
“Azerbaijan is the only country participating in the East-West and North-South transport corridors,” Ilham Aliyev noted. “The modernization of our railway systems, the construction of the largest seaport on the Caspian coast with a cargo handling capacity of about 25 million tons, and the construction of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway linking us to Turkey and Europe by creating the missing link between Europe and Asia opens up good opportunities for those interested in using our infrastructure. We are spending money to create a good tariff policy. The volume of freight traffic is also growing. Ten times more cargo than in the previous year was transported along the North-South corridor last year alone.”
At the same time, the Davos forum isn’t only a platform for discussing global problems and finding their solutions, but also a great opportunity to meet and establish business contacts. Sessions and panels aren’t the only function of the forum. One of the most important functions is to create conditions for bilateral meetings, participants’ discussion of specific business and political issues arising between countries. Achieving understanding between individual members of the community creates favorable atmosphere on a global scale.
As for Azerbaijan, it has no problems and misunderstanding with other countries, with the exception of the aggressor country of Armenia. By the way, an informal meeting of President Ilham Aliyev with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan took place in Davos. The parties discussed the course of the negotiation process on the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. But the main topic of the meetings held by Ilham Aliyev in Davos included cooperation, ongoing or planned projects, the further expansion of Azerbaijan’s ties with major transnational businesses and international partners.
During the forum, President Ilham Aliyev met with officials, heads and representatives of international organizations and companies. Thus, the Azerbaijani president held fruitful meetings with World Bank CEO Kristalina Georgieva, Prime Minister of Georgia Mamuka Bakhtadze.
President Ilham Aliyev also held talks with the head of BP, the president of Visa, the vice president of CISCO, the head of the German IT giant SAP SE, the heads of LUKOIL and Total, vice president of Microsoft, head of the company Signify.
In addition, the Azerbaijani president also met with the heads of the companies “The Boston Consulting Group”, “Lazard Freres”, the head of VTB Bank and the executive vice president of the Suez Group.
In short, the visit by President Ilham Aliyev to Davos showed how high the global interest in Azerbaijan is. The world’s biggest companies seek to negotiate with Azerbaijan, to discuss new projects and opportunities. The scale is impressive. Big business is interested in Azerbaijan and the opportunities that the country can offer its partners.
Of course, all this is a logical result of the policy pursued by the Azerbaijani president. It is thanks to this policy that Azerbaijan is an ideal international partner: reliable, stable, interested in equal and mutually beneficial cooperation. Development, mutual respect and benefit are exactly what Azerbaijan is ready to offer to the world.
Namely such partners are missing now. Therefore, Azerbaijan’s experience arouses genuine interest in Davos. The visit by President Ilham Aliyev to the World Economic Forum has once again proved that Azerbaijan can be an example of success on a global scale. Maybe it is already such an example.