Sub-regional workshop on Sustainable Development Goals kicks off in Baku

By Azernews

By Kamila Aliyeva

A two-day sub-regional workshop on “Data and Statistics for Sustainable Development Goals for high-level official statisticians” kicked off in Baku on May 30.

Deputy Prime Minister Ali Ahmadov, addressing the event, stated that over the period of 10 years, as many as 1.6 million jobs were created in the country.

He noted that Azerbaijan's economy grew by more than 3.5 times in 10-15 years. During the same period, the poverty rate in the country fell from 50 to 5.6 percent.

Azerbaijan is one of the few countries that achieved the highest level of development in the last 15 years, according to him.

Ahmadov stressed that, today, Azerbaijan is successfully implementing reforms and the development concept, which are aimed at improving the living standards of the population.

The government works for the reduction of dependence on oil, diversification of the economy and creation of new industries, the Deputy Prime Minister said.

“Azerbaijan is one of the oil exporting countries. At the same time, our country is carrying out the economic reforms. Azerbaijan has set a goal to reduce dependence on oil. We believe that Azerbaijan will successfully achieve its goal and enter a new stage of the development," Ahmadov added.

Chairman of Azerbaijan’s State Statistics Committee Tahir Budagov, in turn, stressed the importance of the global indicator framework adopted at the 48th session of the UN Statistical Commission in terms of ensuring high-quality, accessible, accurate, reliable and detailed information to conduct national, regional and global monitoring of progress on the goals and objectives specified by “Transforming our World: The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development”.

He said that the realization of information security for assessment of achieving Sustainable Development Goals set new duties on statisticians.

"Registry databases of state institutions must be integrated into the registry database of the state committee. To this end, there is a great need for the support of international organizations,” he added.

Chairwoman of the State Committee of Azerbaijan for Family, Women and Children Affairs Hijran Huseynova, in turn, noted that the UN's Sustainable Development Goals have determined 17 goals for eradication of poverty by 2030.

"Azerbaijan is carrying out a policy of strengthening the family institute. Statistical data collection has led to further improvement of this policy. Official statistics have been produced particularly about girls, early marriage, violence, street children, etc. These studies will allow us to assess the real situation in the country,” she added.

UN Resident Coordinator Ghulam Isaczai noted that no one should be left out of the Sustainable Development Goals.

"To this end, official statistics is very intrinsic. I believe that the data and statistics on what has been done in these areas in Azerbaijan will be delivered to the UN through UNICEF. Azerbaijan has itself initiated submitting the report on Sustainable Development Goals in New York City in July. The UN is ready to offer support to Azerbaijan about the roadmaps which were recently approved,” he said.

Senior officials from the UN Statistical Institute for Asia and the Pacific, CIS Interstate Statistics Committee, Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), Statistical, Economic and Social Research and Training Centre for Islamic Countries(SESRIC), and statistical agencies of Germany, Belarus, Bulgaria. Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Mongolia, Uzbekistan, Russia, Tajikistan and Turkey are participating in the event.