Azerbaijan, Baku, May 26 / corr Trend I.Khalilova /
Development of the non-oil sector, realization of infrastructure projects, increase of state support to business enabled to reduce break in dynamic development of the Azerbaijani economy in 2009, Ziyad Samedzade, head of the parliamentary committee on economic policy, said while discussions over a report on "Execution of 2009 public budget" at a plenary meeting of the Milli Majlis [Parliament].
"Such an approach enabled the special weight of budget income in the national GDP to attain 29.9 percent, Samedzade said. Despite difficult processes, the Azerbaijani economy preserved its leading positions demonstrating steadiness with regard to crisis."
In accordance with successful results of the well though-out economic policy, the leading international rating agency Fitch gave high estimation to Azerbaijan, issuing high investment rating "BBB-" for Azerbaijan.
Real growth of the GDP in Azerbaijan was 9.3 percent last year, while per capita income increased by 7.9 percent, compared to 2.2 percent drop in GDP in France, 4.9 percent in the UK, 5 percent both in Germany and Italy, 14.1 percent in Estonia, and 14.4 percent in Armenia.
"The GDP growth rate in exporter countries, for instance, in Saudi Arabia made up only 0.1 percent and in Iran 1.8 percent. Meanwhile, cut was observed in Norway, the U.S., and Venezuela. This fact once more testifies that Azerbaijan's achievements are not related only with oil factor," Samedzade noted.
While fulfilling the public budget major attention was paid to overall analysis of budget income and expense. The country's financial opportunities enlarged over the past few years, enabling to execute the forecasts on budget income.
However, the year of 2009 is exclusion due to objective reasons. I mean, cut in oil prices in world markets and oil production volumes by the Azerbaijan International Operating Company (AIOC) by 12.9 million tons affected the budget revenues.
"Nevertheless, strategic goals designed for 2009 were met and as a result of preventive measures population's income rose by 8 percent, deposits by 22.7 percent, per capita income by 6.7 percent and inflation made up 1.5 percent," Samedzade said.
According to Samedzade, despite the impact of the global financial crisis, strategic currency reserves of the country exceeded $20 billion as of Jan. 1, 2010.
"The government should increase its support to development of entrepreneurship and efficient use of opportunities will have positive impact on increase of the role of regions and agrarian sector in fulfilling the budget income," Samedzade underscored.
The National Fund for Support to Entrepreneurship received 364 million manat from the public budget 2002-2009, including 74 million manat last year. With consideration of loan issued earlier, the loan portfolio of the Fund will increase to 570-580 million manat by the end of 2010, enabling to open new opportunities for developing entrepreneurship.