Azerbaijan, Baku, April 4 / Trend, A. Akhundov /
By 2020, the non-oil sector will constitute 80 percent of Azerbaijan's economy, the Minister of Economic Development Shahin Mustafayev said during a speech at the presentation of The Business Year magazine on Thursday.
"The role of the non-oil sector in the country's GDP will grow. If today, 48 percent of GDP accounts for the non-oil sector, 52 percent - the oil sector, by 2020 it is projected that the proportion will be 80 to 20 percent. Thus, the economy of Azerbaijan will rid itself of its dependence on the oil sector," Mustafayev said.
According to him, Azerbaijan's economy in the past decade has grown three-fold, non-oil GDP - 2.4-fold, budget revenues - 14-fold, strategic currency reserves - 13-fold.
"Azerbaijan demonstrates resistance to crisis in the global economy. Today, Azerbaijan's economy continues to grow; Azerbaijan accounts for 75 percent of GDP of the South Caucasus", Mustafayev said.
According to him, to date, investments in Azerbaijan's economy exceed $ 144 billion, 51 percent of these investments are foreign.
"The situation in the investment activity in the country began to change in 2008: the share of domestic investments began to rise, due to the expansion of the capacity of the economy and possibilities of the private sector. 60 percent of investments in 2012 fell to internal capital investment," Mustafayev said.
According to him, today there are 80,000 entrepreneurs-legal entities, of which 42,000 are based in Baku, and 432,000 entrepreneurs-individuals, of which 157,300 operate in Baku.