TODAY.AZ / Business

National economy jumps by 3.5 times over decade [UPDATE]

27 April 2017 [13:16] - TODAY.AZ

By Azernews


By Amina Nazarli

The Azerbaijani economy grew by 3.5 times over the past 10-12 years, said Ali Ahmadov, Azerbaijan’s Deputy Prime Minister.

He made the remarks at a meeting of the Commission on Regulation and Coordination of Labor Relations with representatives of construction sector in Baku on April 27. The Commission headed by Ali Ahmadov was created in March 2017.

“Over this period, pensions and salaries increased by approximately threefold in Azerbaijan, and 1.5 million jobs were created at the initiative of the head of state,” he noted. “Last year alone, 90,000 new jobs were created in the country. Azerbaijan became an example for other countries in the field of poverty reduction – as a result of targeted policy, the poverty level decreased from 49 to five percent in the country.”

The deputy prime minister stressed that the work is underway to further reduce unemployment.

“Currently, the unemployment rate is less than six percent in Azerbaijan, while a serious development is also observed in other areas,” added Ahmadov.

He said that this economic growth created a solid basis for fulfillment of obligations facing the government.

Construction sector in Azerbaijan is the second after the oil sector in terms of the largest amount of investments, stressed Ahmadov.

He said that 11.4 billion manats ($6.7 billion) out of 15 billion manats ($8.82 billion) of investments, invested in the country’s economy in 2016 falls to the share of the construction sector.

More than 3.9 billion manats ($2.29 billion) out of these 11.4 billion manats were invested in fixed assets, he said, adding that thanks to these funds 13,000 apartments with a total area of 1.67 million square meters were built.

The deputy prime minister noted that the construction sector also plays a significant role in the labor market.

“A total of 343,000 people work in the construction sector, accounting for seven percent of country’s working population, according to the statistics,” he said, adding that the construction sector is developing and strengthening yearly.

In the near future, Azerbaijan will prepare a project to prevent illegal employment in the construction sector, Ahmadov told reporters on the sidelines of the event.  

Currently, the majority of people working without labor contracts are engaged in the construction sector, according to him.

“Illegal employment allows workers to shirk from fulfilling a number of obligations - paying taxes, social contributions. I believe that our today's meeting with the leaders of a number of construction companies will yield positive results. We expect that all employees working in this sphere will officially formalize their employment relations," he said.

Today, the share of the construction sector in Azerbaijan’s GDP amounts to about 10 percent.

The government plans to achieve a GDP growth by 249 million manats ($ 141.2 million) until 2020, through the implementation of measures envisaged in the Strategic Road Map for the development of housing provision at a reasonable price.  

The Road Map comprises short-term (until 2020), medium-term (until 2025) and long-term measures (post 2025) to be implemented in the sphere. Some 900 million manats ($493.09 million) are planned to be spent for the implementation of the measures.  Under the Road Map, some 10,000 new jobs will be created in the construction sector of the country.

URL: http://www.today.az/news/business/160601.html

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