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Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev gives interview to Rossiya-24 News TV - PHOTO

12 April 2011 [09:39] - TODAY.AZ
Azerbaijani President: Azerbaijan supports Nabucco project but given mutual interests

Geography and infrastructure contributes to displaying an interest to Azerbaijan as a possible supplier of gas to Europe in the future, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said in an interview with Rossiya-24 News TV channel of the  All- Russia State Television and Radio  Broadcasting Company .

He said at present the country's gas potential is being realized in the regional market.

"On the other hand, our capacities and potential output volume, production and transportation are much higher than today's regional markets. In this case, of course, we face a task: either to seek access into new markets or increase our export to traditional ones," Aliyev said.

President Aliyev stressed that Azerbaijan supports the Nabucco project, but given mutual interests. First and foremost, commercial interests should be met. There should be a fair price.

There are so many questions regarding transit of our gas, what the price will be for last consumer, who will pay for construction of the new pipeline.

"What Azerbaijan’s role will be as a transit country, as is clear, it is impossible to fill the Nabucco only with Azerbaijani gas resources. Gas from Central Asia should be also involved. Who will deal with commercial, technical issues and political agreements - that is, there are so many ambiguities and a lot of issues that need solutions," Aliyev said.

President Aliyev said early this year the EU and Azerbaijan signed a declaration on the Southern Transport Corridor. A joint working group has been established, as well as consultations have been launched under the project "Southern Corridor".

"I think if these negotiations are successful and all parties' interests are met, of course, we will be interested to enter another gas market. But it all will depend on how the negotiations will be held and to what extent Azerbaijan’s interests will be taken into account," Aliyev said.

He said that a serious shortage of gas supply may be observed in Europe by 2030, and it will not only restrain economic development, but also lead to very serious consequences.

He added, that the best option would be the coordination of efforts and joint activity of producers and consumers and transit countries where it is necessary; so that the issues of gas cooperation didn’t become matters of unhealthy competition or any confrontation.

This year Azerbaijan will produce 28 billion cubic meters of gas, about ten or eleven billion of which will account for domestic consumption, and the rest is export resource. Under extra investments of around $20 billion, we can increase gas production by another 15 billion cubic meters or even more. But it is necessary to have contracts and to have markets in order to make these investments, because one cannot do without it in gas business. Everything is interconnected here, and therefore one needs to plan and coordinate all," President Aliyev said.


"Despite crisis period, Azerbaijan remains attractive for foreign investors"

Azerbaijan hopes to continue to attract investments in future, but even if this does not occur, the economy of Azerbaijan has already acquired the inertia potential and will be developing dynamically, President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev told Russian news channel Russia-24 of the All-Russian State TV and Radio Broadcasting Company.

"The investment initiatives we have realized in Azerbaijan have had good effect. We carried out a concrete program to attract foreign investments, primarily, in power engineering, and we have established good conditions for investors, and fully protected their investments through legal acts. And we continue to see good results of this cooperation. The billions of dollars invested in the oil and gas industry naturally led to that they were also invested in the servicing infrastructure, in associated spheres, and in industry," the head of Azerbaijani state said.

At present stage of development, Azerbaijan, we can say, no longer depends on foreign investments, if to consider at least last year indicators: a total of $15.5 billion were invested in the economy, including $8 billion and $7 billion as domestic investments and foreign investments, respectively.

"This means, Azerbaijan's attractiveness for foreign investors remains despite the crisis period," President Ilham Aliyev said.

According to Aliyev, this happens primarily as a result of good investment climate in the country, protection of foreign investments, and the dynamical development of the country. "That is because foreign money goes to where certain results have already been achieved, where there is predictability and where investors feel themselves confident and know that no one can change the terms of contracts signed, probably, 10-15 years ago."

"We have established the State Investment Company, which holds 20% interest in important investment projects in the country, and this also yields positive effect," the head of the state said

According to the President, the unemployment problem in the country has been solved significantly over the past few years; 900,000 new jobs have been created over the past 7 years, and the poverty level was reduced from nearly 50% to 9% for this period.

"Nevertheless, I think 9% is too much. Therefore, social problems, and raise of wages and pensions will go on, naturally, with respect to inflationary risks. Certainly, we raise wages and pensions annually, and this process must go on as even today's level of minimum wages and pensions can not satisfy anyone," President Aliyev underscored.

In addition, Azerbaijan uses oil export revenues primarily for the development of infrastructure projects, the establishment of appropriate conditions in regions, the construction of power stations, gas supply lines, hospitals, schools and roads, and the crediting of entrepreneurs.

"We annually assign large sums of preferential credits for a period of several years to private sector and hence, create jobs in regions. People earn money by not receiving high wages but at the expense of their entrepreneurial activity," the President of Azerbaijan said.

In Azerbaijan, economic policy is liberalized very strongly, there are very liberal legal provisions, and no bureaucratic decisions are required for doing business. Any person can register his/her company and start doing business within three days. Moreover, the state stimulates this through issuing preferential credits, the head of the state said.

"Azerbaijan hopes for more active involvement of mediators in Nagorno-Karabakh conflict resolution"

Azerbaijan hopes for more active participation of mediators, mainly the OSCE Minsk Group Co-chairs and Russia in resolving the Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev noted during the interview.

"We hope for more active participation of mediators, mainly the OSCE Minsk Group Co-chairs and Russia as a regional country, as our neighbor, especially given Russia’s active role in recent years," Aliyev pointed out.

Aliyev appraised Russia’s role in resolving the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. "President Dmitry Medvedev has made great efforts to help the sides to settle the conflict. Several tripartite meetings have been held on his initiative, which are of great importance and have a positive effect," he said.

President Aliyev said unfortunately, the conflict remains unresolved for many years, and expressed hope for progress in the near future. "Although it took many years and although almost all international organizations have adopted relevant decisions and resolutions, the conflict still remains unresolved. The UN Security Council adopted four resolutions on withdrawal of the Armenian occupying forces from the Azerbaijani territory, and none of them has been fulfilled.

When we see that the Security Council’s resolution on Libya begins to be fulfilled just within a few hours of its adoption, whereas the resolution on Nagorno-Karabakh remains unfulfilled for already 17-18 years, then, of course, the question arises - why? What is the reason for such a speed, and in our case - such passivity?" President Aliyev added.

"We are keen to boost relations with Russia"

"Relations between Azerbaijan and Russia are developing very rapidly, consistently and efficiently. There is a very high level of political contacts at the level of heads of states. Mutual visits are made on a regular basis . We are in constant contact and make decisions that give a real output. Both sides rightly characterize our relations as a relationship of strategic partners. We are neighbors. We have always lived on good neighborhood and friendship principles. We live together for centuries, and it is very important that during the formation of Azerbaijan as an independent state, these positive tendencies have been preserved and increased," Aliyev said.

Relations in the economic sphere are intensifying, he said. "During the crisis period, our trade turnover slightly dropped, but now we compensate and improve the structure of trade turnover. Russia is of great interest for us as the market for our goods, as well as in terms of commercial relations. Russia is also our main partner for imports, that is, Azerbaijan’s major imports account for Russia," the President said.

President Aliyev said there are also very good results in the humanitarian sphere. "This year we will hold the First International Humanitarian Forum in Baku upon the Russian and Azerbaijani presidents’ initiative. Last year the Russian-Azerbaijani Humanitarian Forum was held, when the elite of the Russian intellectual society gathered in Baku, and it yielded good results," he explained.

According to Aliyev, there is a very positive dynamics in all directions: now the two countries cooperate in energy sphere, military-technical cooperation is developing successfully - this is the reality of the past few years. "That is, we are keen to further boost our relations," President Aliyev stressed.

Azerbaijan President highlighted the document on the delimitation of border among the important documents signed in the recent past. "It is one of the most important documents for each country to define its borders with its neighbors, and these borders were determined based on mutual interests, fairly. This agreement will further strengthen bilateral relations between our countries and our peoples," he underscored.

"There are no issues requiring urgent solution in our bilateral relations. All that needed to be solved - I mean the problematic issues - have been resolved. In the future we just have to grow a positive potential for cooperation," Aliyev said.


/Trend/

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