Azerbaijani president: Contract of Century marked extremely significant and decisive event in life of independent Azerbaijan

13:37

Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev and his spouse Mehriban Aliyeva attended the celebrative event.

The President made a speech at the ceremony.

There are extracts from president’s speech at the solemn ceremony.

Ladies and Gentlemen!
Distinguished guests!

I cordially greet all of you. I congratulate you and the entire Azerbaijani people on the 15th anniversary of Contract of the Century.

Extremely significant and decisive event happened in the history of independent Azerbaijan fifteen years ago. Signing of the Contract of the Century opened up new opportunities and horizons for Azerbaijan. At that time, this was the third year of Azerbaijan’s independence. The first years of independence were very hard for our country. The country was in total crisis in 1991-1993

This event - the signing of Contract of the Century boosted opportunities of long-term successful development of Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan presented itself to the world. For the first time in the world large multinational consortium was established involving companies, representing various countries, and the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan began a successful collaboration. For ther first time the Caspian Sea was opened for international cooperation. It was Azerbaijan who did it.

The signing of the Contract of the Century allowed for the first time in the world to begin transport oil and gas resources of the Caspian Sea to international markets via the Black and Mediterranean seas.

That is, the Contract of the Century is of great historical significance.

Major investments began to flow in Azerbaijan. At that time, Azerbaijan did not have great financial opportunities. Our financial capabilities were very limited. We had no capability to develop Azeri, Chirag and Deepwater Gunashli on our own and invest in them. Therefore, ensuring the flow of foreign capital in Azerbaijan was a very important task. It's also true that at that time, Azerbaijan was known as a very risky country.

Civil war inside the country and aggressive policy of Armenia against our country presented Azerbaijan as a very dangerous country to the world. Contract of the Century played an indispensable role to stop this, to lift Azerbaijan from the information blockade and to present our country to the world as it was.

Our successful future relies heavily on the contract signed fifteen years ago. At the same time, foreign companies who worked together with us and who did not know us well at that time saw that Azerbaijan is a reliable partner, a beautiful country for investments and cooperation with Azerbaijan is beneficial. They have recompensed investments with profits. Today, I am sure both we and our foreign partners are satisfied with cooperation. This is actually a fine example of international cooperation.

Under terms of the contract, number of Azerbaijani personnel was also determined by percentage. Their number was gradually increased. Today Azerbaijani specialists and workers constitute majority of professionals and workers involved in this project.

Due to large investment projects the international community learned about Azerbaijan. Other projects subsequently signed with foreign oil companies also brought great success to Azerbaijan..

The implementation of the contract brought tens of billions of foreign investment to Azerbaijan. Our entire oil and gas infrastructure was upgraded. The infrastructure built in 1970s thanks to the initiative of Heydar Aliyev has served intensive implementation of the contract. If Deep Water Jacket Plant was not once built, implementation of the contract could be very lengthy. Less than three years passed since the signing of the contract requiring such large, ambitious investments till to the production of early oil. I believe that this is unprecedented global rate.

The second milestone was the launch of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline. This historic event is important not only for Azerbaijan but also for the countries of the region. Today the importance of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline increases even more, because it also pumps oil produced in the eastern part of the Caspian Sea to the Mediterranean Sea. Azerbaijan has already become transit country for other states.

Azerbaijan was able to let the world community know it as a reliable transit country.

Before construction of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline, oil was transported to international markets via the other two routes. As a result of reversing the Baku-Novorossiysk oil pipeline and construction of Baku-Supsa oil pipeline our oil is transported to world markets in a diversified manner.

Today, Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan, Baku-Supsa and Baku-Novorossiysk pipelines supply Azerbaijani crude to world markets in different directions. Thus, the energy security of Azerbaijan is provided in full. Azerbaijan delivers its oil resources to world markets in a diversified manner. Of course, if no contract was signed on Azeri-Chiraq-Gunashli fields and Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline was not built, Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum gas pipeline would not have existed at all.

Azerbaijan exports its gas to world markets through this pipeline.

Azerbaijan as a reliable oil and gas exporter has become even for important for the world community. Today, we are very actively engaged in energy security issues. In the 1990s and even in the first half of 2000s energy security issues were not discussed much. But in recent years the whole world and Europe have seen how important are these questions. Azerbaijan, for its part has taken all necessary measures and has created oil and gas infrastructure together with foreign partners. Through the implementation of the contract the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan has become an international company.

In 1994, Azerbaijan was a poor country. Our foreign exchange reserves were at zero. Today Azerbaijan's foreign exchange reserves exceed $18 billion. Over the past five years, Azerbaijan's state budget has increased more than 10 times. In 2003-2008 the economy and gross domestic product in Azerbaijan grew 2.6 times. This is unprecedented achievement worldwide. Over  the past five years about 800,000 new jobs have been created in Azerbaijan, vast majority of which account for non-oil sector.

Over the past five years, the poverty rate has declined from 49 to 13 percent. This indicates that Azerbaijan’s oil revenues are distributed fairly. Transparency has been fully secured in Azerbaijan. The State Oil Fund of Azerbaijan established in late 1999 is very modern and transparent organization. It is no accidental that the State Oil Fund of Azerbaijan was awarded by the UN for transparency and it is an active member of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative.  In many cases, the experience of the State Oil Fund of Azerbaijan is studied in other countries.

The ongoing profound reforms in Azerbaijan are reflected in reports of international institutions. In 2008, the World Bank announced Azerbaijan top reformer in the world. This year World Economic Forum ranked Azerbaijan as 51st in competitiveness ranking. This is also a very big achievement.

Today Azerbaijan is a modern and stable country with a strong economy for investments. Our cooperation with foreign partners is continuing, which is very gratifying. We have always been true to our words. Therefore, Azerbaijan is recognized worldwide as a reliable partner and friendly country.

Sept. 16
11:37

A solemn ceremony to celebrate the 15th anniversary of the signing of the Contract of the Century was held at the Buta palace in Baku on Sept. 15.

Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev and his spouse Mehriban Aliyeva attended the celebrative event.

The President made a speech at the ceremony, saying the Contract of the Century opened up new horizons for Azerbaijan.

"Extremely significant and decisive event happened in life of independent Azerbaijan 15 years ago," the President said.

“It facilitated Azerbaijan`s development and ensured the flow of foreign investments to the country.”

“These investments contributed to developing the non-oil sector of Azerbaijan along with the oil sector,” said the President.

“And it also opened the Caspian`s hydrocarbon resources to the world.”

President Ilham Aliyev also touched upon the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline, saying it was very important not only for Azerbaijan, but also for regional countries.

“The importance of the BTC has been continuing, turning Azerbaijan into a transit country,” he added.

The Head of State spoke of Azerbaijan`s energy policy, saying “it expanded from a regional to a global scale”.

“Azerbaijan has become a reliable oil and gas exporting country worldwide,” the President said.

Other speakers, including SOCAR President Rovnag Abdullayev, BP-Azerbaijan President Rashid Javanshir and EU Energy Commissioner Andris Piebalgs praised Azerbaijan`s achievements since the signing of the Contract of the Century.

Following the speeches, the event featured demonstration of a film about the anniversary of the Contract, and a concert.

/AzerTaj/