BAKU, Azerbaijan, June 20. Azerbaijan's policy aimed at strengthening the social protection of the population is fully in line with the UN agenda for sustainable development until 2030, Minister of Labor and Social Protection of the Population Sahil Babayev said, Trend reports.
According to Babayev, three packages of social reforms, covering four million people, worth additional six billion manat ($3.5 billion) per year have been implemented in Azerbaijan over the past three years.
"During this period, social payments increased by 65 percent, the minimum pension - by 2.2 times, the average pension - by 60 percent, the minimum wage - by 2.3 times, and the annual fund salary more than doubled," he reminded.
The minister noted innovative achievements in the social sphere in recent years (opening of Sustainable and Operative Social Provision (DOST) centers, launch of automated mechanisms for assigning social payments, an electronic social portal (e-social), the Employment subsystem, and others).
Babayev said that of the 173 social services, 110 are provided by the ministry online, and 48 - proactively, while 388,000 people received social payments electronically.
The new subsystem called "Labor and Employment" informs about innovations and benefits in the field of labor relations. To strengthen and regulate labor rights in accordance with international norms and standards, amendments were prepared and introduced to Article 170 of the Azerbaijani Labor Code, he added.
