Baku, Azerbaijan, June 11
By Ilkin Shafiyev - Trend:
The Azerbaijani government has done a great work to improve the well-being of population and reduce poverty, Canadian Fraser Institute's Resident Fellow Fred McMahon told Trend.
Azerbaijan achieved great success in improving the well-being of population and reducing poverty, while not only energy resources became the key to success, according to McMahon.
He noted that not all countries with energy reserves can boast of such success.
Nevertheless, according to McMahon, Azerbaijan still has much to do. The main steps should be provision of maximum freedom to business, further improvement of regulatory framework in this direction, protection of the rights of investors, he added.
McMahon said that further reforms in this direction will assist Azerbaijan in achieving the necessary results.
It is necessary to ensure participation of the country's all citizens in development of the economy to reach the next level of the economic development, he said, adding that the Azerbaijani government is doing a competent job in this regard, and the results can become an example for many generations.
According to the Azerbaijani government, poverty rate in the country has declined from 49 to 5.4 percent since 2003. Today, the unemployment rate in the country is only 5 percent.
Azerbaijan is realizing various programs to provide social assistance, such as targeted social assistance or self-employment programs.
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