Azerbaijani parliament approves government's report on socio-economic development

The Parliament of Azerbaijan with majority of votes recognized satisfactory the activities of the Cabinet of Ministers in 2010. On Tuesday, the Parliament discussions on the report of the Cabinet of Ministers regarding the socio-economic development of the country in 2010.

Of 110 MPs participating in the voting, 107 voted for, 3 - against.

The report reflects the positive dynamics of socio-economic development of Azerbaijan in all sectors, and for the GDP growth rates among the CIS countries, Azerbaijan ranked the first, the Speaker of the Parliament Oktay Asadov said during the discussions. Real GDP growth in 2010 was 5%, while non-oil sector growth rate reached 7.9%.

"According to estimations of the international organizations, Azerbaijan is an attractive country for investors," said the speaker.

Last year, about $13.9 billion was invested on Azerbaijan's economy, an increase of 32.4 percent as compared to the previous year.

Asadov said today Azerbaijan has the competitive defense products that are exported to foreign markets.

Prime Minister Arthur Rasizade also noticed that the issue of strengthening national defense and improving military capabilities of the country is constantly on the focus of attention of the Azerbaijani leadership and is one of the priorities. In 2010, $3 billion was spent to strengthen the defense capabilities of the country, which is four percent more than 2009. During 2004-2010, the expenses on defense increased by 8.7 times.

Rasizade said new productions were created at the factories of the Defence Industry Ministry and output of defense products increased by 2.3 times. Currently, Azerbaijan's defense industry produces more than 350 items of defense products.

Over seven years, the level of poverty in the country reduced by five times - up to 9.1 percent last year, 913,000 new jobs, including 73,000 in 2010, were created.

Amongst the measures, the Prime Minister also mentioned the increase in average monthly wages by 9.1% up to 325 manat. Minimum wage and the basic pension was increased to 85 manat.

"In accordance with the orders of the country's President, the basic part of the pension was increased for 1.3 million pensioners by 13%, and monthly wages for 800,000 employees of public institutions - 10%, and social benefits for the poor on average grew by 20%, Rasizade said. - A total of 336.9 million manat was allocated to improve the welfare and living conditions of refugees and internally displaced persons."


/Trend/