The Economist: Azerbaijanis grateful to President Aliyev for rising living standards and political stability

By Trend:

The Economist, the world-famous publication, has devoted an article to the convincing victory of Ilham Aliyev in the presidential election in Azerbaijan.

The incumbent head of state, Chairman of the New Azerbaijan Party Ilham Aliyev has garnered 86.03 percent of votes in the April 11 election.

The Economist highlights that many Azerbaijanis are grateful to President Ilham Aliyev for rising living standards and political stability in a turbulent part of the world. They also like his tough talk on Armenia, which occupies the Nagorno-Karabakh territory of Azerbaijan, according to the article.

The Economist also touched upon a number of economic achievements of President Ilham Aliyev.

"Thanks to abundant oil and gas, its economy grew by an average annual rate of 13 percent in the decade to 2014, making it the fastest-growing in the world for three consecutive years in the late 2000s. The country of 10m has seen its poverty rate fall from 50 percent in 2000 to 5 percent today," the article reads.

But relying on fast-dwindling hydrocarbons is unlikely to be a sustainable model. President Aliyev instead wants to turn Azerbaijan into a transit hub on China’s new Silk Road, according to The Economist.

The publication notes that the opening of a new railway last October connecting the Azerbaijani capital, Baku, to Kars in Turkey and onwards to the Balkans, means that the shortest route between China and Europe now runs through Azerbaijan.

In 2016 two-way trade in goods between China and the EU reached €515 billion ($560 billion). More than 90 percent of that trade currently goes by sea, which takes twice as long, according to the article.

The Economist also informs about another international transport project, to which Azerbaijan is a party.

"Another “north-south” transport corridor is shortly to link Mumbai and Moscow by rail, passing through Azerbaijan," it reads.