Azerbaijani president touts economic achievements

In an interview with the Russian news agency Interfax, Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev touted the country’s economic development during his first term in office.

“For recent years, Azerbaijan has been a world leader in terms of GDP growth rate, and posted 96 percent growth in GDP in the past four years. This has provided an opportunity for us to build up sufficient financial resources and pursue an active social policy. Among these figures, the most important for me, I would say, is that poverty fell to 16 percent from 49 percent in the country over four years,” he said, according to the Azerbaijani news agency APA.

He also emphasized that his term oversaw the creation of 650 000 jobs in Azerbaijan, the construction of a gas pipeline taking Azerbaijani gas to the world market and the construction of 1200 schools.

“We are making vast investments in healthcare, other issues of public concern—infrastructure, power plants, water and gas pipelines and environmental programs. Today, there is no field of economic sectors left without any programs,” Aliyev added.

Azerbaijan’s next presidential election is slated for October.