President: Azerbaijan to continue moving on development path

By  Trend

Despite that 2016 turned out to be a difficult year for Azerbaijan’s economy, the country is on and will continue going the path of development, said Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev Oct.7.

The president made the remarks in his opening speech during a meeting of the Cabinet of Ministers dedicated to results of socio-economic development in nine months of 2016 and objectives for the future.

The president said that 2016 was a very hard year for the global economy, adding that maybe, this is one of the toughest years in history.

“The crisis situation continues in global economy. Both the countries rich with natural resources and consumer countries suffer from this crisis,” said the president. “Naturally, sharp decline in oil prices has negatively affected the oil-rich countries.”

At the same time, other countries which fulfill their contracts in oil-rich states also suffer, because, the companies of those countries fulfill the contracts in smaller volumes and thus, this crisis affects these countries as well, according to President Aliyev.

“As I said, the oil prices dropped and as a result, the state investments decreased, less investments were made in the construction sector and to some extent, this led to economic recession,” he said. “However, it’s gratifying that our industry is growing. Our industrial potential is growing slowly – by 0.2 percent, but it is growing.”

“The non-oil sector of our economy, our industry is growing,” said the president, adding that the growth in the non-oil sector is 3.6 percent, which is good.

“The agricultural sector has grown by 2.4 percent and I am confident that this figure will grow even more, because the work carried out in the sphere of agriculture will bring even greater results in the near future,” he added. President Aliyev pointed out that all the work carried out in other fields is going as planned.

The Southern Gas Corridor is being implemented successfully and Azerbaijan is turning into an important transportation center, he added.

“Long-distance cargo containers run through Azerbaijan’s territory. This means that by creating a very strong transportation infrastructure, we will ensure our country’s long-term political and economic interests,” said President Aliyev.

“I believe that in general, the results of 2016 are good. We’ve done a good job. Over the recent years, 2016 is the most tough and difficult year for the country’s economy. But as I said, we still are and will continue moving on the path of development,” added the president.