The Finance Ministry and the World Bank conducted an international event held on "Public Sector Accounting" within "Pem PAL" program in Baku last week.
Around 20 countries attended the workshop. The participants discussed the functional benefits of public financial management in treasury information management system, the ability of the system within the e-government.
The share of investment expenditure in the structure of the state budget expenditure will be reduced for the nearest years, Azerbaijani Deputy Finance Minister Azer Bayramov said at the international workshop "Public Sector Accounting" within "Pem PAL" program.
"Around a half of the state budget expenditure has recently fallen to the investment expenditure," he said. These funds are transferred to support the current projects and increase the current costs. However, the share of investment expenditure will be reduced in the future and the current budget will be increased." He said that the country's state budget has recently increased and the budget parameters exceed 30 percent of GDP.
Chairman of the parliamentary committee on economic policy Ziyad Samadzade also spoke at the workshop. The level of budget parameters - 32-34 percent of GDP is a positive sign.
"Azerbaijan has the highest rates of growth of budget expenditures among the CIS countries," Samadzade said. "Despite Azerbaijan's GDP per capita is at a high level - around $9,000, there are some areas that need development. These rates of expenditure allow liquidating a gap in these areas."
The state investments in the state budget hit 6.915 billion manat in 2013, or 34.9 percent of all state budget expenditures. They will increase by 1.141 billion manat, or 19.8 percent compared to the predicted data as of late 2012 and by 1.063 billion manat, or 18.2 percent compared to the actual indices in 2011.
The investments will primarily focus on construction and reconstruction of industrial, transport, energy, agriculture and other infrastructure, social and cultural facilities, the purchase of fixed assets, a number of state programs, and so on in 2013.
According to the project, the budget expenditure will amount to 19.81 billion manat in 2013 (35.2 percent of GDP projected for next year).
Retention of external debt to GDP ratio at no more than 10 percent level is a task for the government of Azerbaijan, Deputy Finance Minister Azer Bayramov said during a speech at an international seminar on Policy Public Sector Accounting within Pem PAL program.
He noted that the policy is welcomed by the international rating agencies, which is reflected in their assessments, as well as positively affect on the investment environment in the country. "Today Azerbaijan's economy is reducing dependence on foreign investments," Bayramov said.
Public external debt of Azerbaijan increased by 24.9 percent in 2011. According to the government's report on the results of last year, the foreign debt of the country reached $4.817 billion (7.6 percent of GDP) on January 1, 2012, while the figure was $3.857 billion on January 1, 2011.
The increase of this figure by a quarter is connected with the expansion of cooperation between Azerbaijan and various international financial organizations and donor countries, as a result loan agreements worth about $1.67 billion were signed in 2011, to finance important projects for economy.