BAKU, Azerbaijan, Mar. 6
Trend:
We never begged like Armenia, never humiliated ourselves, never asked anyone for help, President of the Republic of Azerbaijan, Chairman of the New Azerbaijan Party Ilham Aliyev said making a speech at the 7th Congress of the New Azerbaijan Party (YAP) held in a video format, Trend reports.
“What other preparatory work was required? Economic, of course! You can't do anything without an economic foundation. Unlike Armenia, no-one helped Azerbaijan. We have achieved everything with our own hard work. We never begged like Armenia, never humiliated ourselves, never asked anyone for help. Therefore, economic independence was the main condition in terms of both preparing and strengthening political independence. We have achieved this. Today we do not depend on anyone for anything, for any parameter. We occupy the most advanced places in the economic sphere – in terms of external debt, economic growth, and foreign exchange reserves per capita. So we are at the forefront in any criterion and have ensured transparency in this area. Yesterday I was informed that a very influential organization analyzed more than 60 sovereign funds of the world, and the State Oil Fund of Azerbaijan ranks fifth in terms of all parameters, all criteria. I ordered to publish this list so that everyone can see the sovereign oil funds or resource funds of which countries are listed there. Notice who we are ahead of. Pay attention to the report of the Davos Economic Forum. We are ahead of developed countries in terms of economic development and infrastructure projects. Did anyone help us? No! Did we borrow for this? No! Our external debt accounts for only 18-19 percent of the gross domestic product. In addition, our foreign exchange reserves are five to six times higher than our external debt. If we want, we can pay off the entire external debt tomorrow, the day after tomorrow, in a month. So we have achieved all these successes through our own hard work, as a country whose lands were under occupation, as a country in an extremely difficult geopolitical situation. It was preparation for the patriotic war in the economic, political sphere, in the field of internal stability,” the head of state said.