29 March 2024

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SOCIAL REVOLUTION

Mahir ABBASZADEH: "Reforms announced by President Ilham Aliyev step into a new stage"

Author:

15.04.2019

Large-scale economic and social reforms have been implemented in Azerbaijan since the beginning of 2019. Among other things, the government takes measures to improve the living conditions and welfare of the population affected by the Armenian-Azerbaijani war. In particular, we can witness an unprecedented scale of construction of towns for internally displaced persons, who as a result of the Armenian occupation have lived in unbearable living conditions.

Hence, our first interview is focused on this particular issue, which is one of the issues we are going to discuss with the deputies of the Azerbaijani parliament.

Our first interviewee is a member of the Milli Majlis, a member of the parliamentary Committee on Economic Policy, Industry and Entrepreneurship, as well as the Committee on Youth and Sports, director of the Social Development Fund for Forced Migrants, Mahir ABBASZADEH.

"As you also know, a new settlement for internally displaced persons has been opened in one of the suburbs of Baku recently. In general, we can witness quite an intensive housing initiatives focused on this category of population. What is the reason for such progress?"

"Due to Armenian aggression on Azerbaijan, our country has faced a challenge of accommodating more than one million refugees and internally displaced persons. Immediately after the coming of the national leader Heydar Aliyev to power in 1993, the government began to pay great attention to the problems of this category of population despite a mass of other social issues that had accumulated by that period. The state has tried to do everything within its financial capacity to support the people affected by the war. President Ilham Aliyev with great support from Mehriban Aliyeva, who then headed the Heydar Aliyev Foundation have since successfully continued this policy. Thanks to the economic development of Azerbaijan, the process has become more ambitious. The government adopted two state programs to solve the social problems of refugees and IDPs. These programs made it possible to do a lot of work to improve the living conditions of refugees and to solve their employment issues and to protect their health. As of today, the state has built more than 100 new settlements, which accommodate about 300,000 internally displaced persons, and this work continues successfully. The government also creates conditions for improving people's welfare. This process received additional support after the appointment of Mehriban Aliyeva as a vice-president of Azerbaijan, who dedicated her first meeting to the problems of IDPs. Government's initiatives have soon been supported by the private sector, which also contributed to speeding up the process of building new settlements for war-affected people.

In a word, if earlier new settlements were built only by the Social Development Fund of Forced Migrants at the expense of the State Oil Fund, today the Heydar Aliyev Foundation and the private sector also joined the process. This allowed in 2018 to provide a record number of immigrants with new housing. And this dynamic will grow."

"I would like to draw your attention to statistics of the last year to compare the scope of works..."

"According to President Ilham Aliyev, in 2018 a record number of families (5,800) of refugees and IDPs were provided with new apartments. It is about 25 thousand people. 810 families will be accommodated only in a single town near the village of Kurdakhani. All the necessary infrastructure created is provided there, including a school for 560 pupils and a kindergarten for 280 children. In general, president set the bar high this year expecting to provide 6,000 families of IDPs with new apartments. It is planned to build new towns in Pirallahi settlement of Baku, as well as the territories of Beylagan, Shirvan, Kurdamir, Goychay, Goygol, Agjabedi, Fizuli regions. Some of these projects are already at the construction stage, and we expect to hand them over by the end of the year.

I would like to emphasize that today the government of Azerbaijan fully supports the population affected by the war. This was also demonstrated at the recent meeting of Mehriban Aliyeva with a group of the veterans of the Karabakh war, who, with the support of the Heydar Aliyev Foundation, were provided with the most modern prostheses. With their help, people who have lost their health while protecting the territorial integrity of the country will be able to live a full life."

"In one of your interviews you mentioned a social revolution taking place in Azerbaijan. What revolutionary changes are taking place in other areas of social life?"

"A year ago, when the voters re-elected Ilham Aliyev as the president of Azerbaijan, he declared that a new wave of reforms would cover the country in all spheres. President announced these reforms before the elections. He said that new models, new forms of management, other approaches to economic, political, judicial and legal spheres would be applied. During this year, we witnessed many decisions based on these reforms. Social reforms are the instrumental part of these reforms. The state budget for 2019 allocated approximately 40% of state expenditures to social needs. Therefore, the ongoing processes in Azerbaijan, which started in January 2019, can be called no less than a social revolution coordinated by the president himself.

As you know, the minimum living allowance in Azerbaijan has been raised from ₼130 to ₼180 since the beginning of this year. In real terms, ₼50 may seem a slight increase. But 36-38% increase in a single move is a rather impressive figure. The decision was also a message to the private sector, as 200 thousand of 600 thousand people covered by this decision work in the private sector. In addition, the president ordered to increase student scholarships, pensions, and the monthly allowances of internally displaced persons also by 50%. All of this is only one of the components of the whole package of social reforms.

Also, as a result of the sudden decline in global oil prices and the economic crisis in neighbouring countries, Azerbaijan has experienced two stages of devaluation of the national currency. This caused tensions between banks and their customers. Banks have a big drawback known as problem loans; citizens have debts that have grown because of devaluation. At first, it was expected that the parties would be able to sort things out among themselves, since it was a question of private transactions. However, over time, it became clear that it is impossible without government's intervention. Therefore, President Aliyev instructed to allocate ₼1 billion for the settlement of problem loans. This can be called the peak of social decisions of the president this year. This will solve the debt problems of citizens, improve liquidity indicators in the banking sector and restore confidence in banks. Solving the problem of banks' liquidity, in turn, will increase investment in the real sector and speed up the process of employment. Therefore, I call the social reforms in Azerbaijan revolutionary.

If you noticed, all decrees and orders of the president have specific deadlines, which means that the reforms announced by President Ilham Aliyev stepped into a qualitatively new stage."

"In other words, you mean that social reforms transformed into new economic opportunities. How will these reforms affect international ratings of Azerbaijan?"

"As you know, the World Economic Forum held in Davos is a recognised platform bringing together the economic and political elite of the world. They have always supported the ongoing economic reforms in Azerbaijan. Our country occupies the top half of the ratings of the Davos forum on various indicators. In addition, since 2006, Azerbaijan has been included in the World Bank's Doing Business report. If in the first years we were in the 90th place, then 13 years later, as a result of the reforms, we moved up the rating and in the Doing Business 2019 report we are 25th among 190 countries. This is a very important report. Well-known economists of the world take part in its preparation, it explains the essence of economic reforms. The promotion of positions in this ranking suggests that increasing economic opportunities and, importantly, ensuring transparency, receive an unambiguously positive assessment of international organizations. Azerbaijani brand ASAN plays an instrumental role in this matter.

In a word, on the one hand, today's social reforms serve the interests of citizens, while on the other hand, they ensure the growth of economic potential of the state. Together with tax and customs reforms, improvement of the business climate and other decisions contribute to improving the position of Azerbaijan in future international ratings."



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