ASSOCIATION IS NOT ENOUGH

When organising the "European Management Forum" in the Swiss town of Davos back in 1971, the economist Klaus Schwab could not have imagined what would happen to his brainchild over the next 30 to 40 years. You see, initially this was purely an economic platform for major companies, on which ways of boosting Western Europe's competitiveness were discussed. But, as time went on, the forum really took the fancy of politicians as well, and from 1987 it was transformed into the World Economic Forum (WEF), which furnished a platform for resolving problems and conflicts on an international scale.

Today the Davos forum has become one of the most prestigious platforms for the exchange of views on the most topical international economic and political issues. 

The current, 44th session of the World Economic Forum has been held under the slogan: "The Reshaping of the World: Consequences for Society, Politics and Business". Azerbaijan has once again attended this prestigious forum just as it has over the last few years,

Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev has taken advantage of this forum to fairly effectively promote the country's interests among the world political and economic elite. Moreover, the fact that Azerbaijan and the entire Caucasus-Caspian region is important to the world economic elite made it possible to hold a separate session of the Davos forum in Baku in April 2013. This was the first and for the moment the only session of the forum devoted to the Southern Caucasus and the Caspian basin

During this forum the Azerbaijani president met with the heads of a number of major companies - Microsoft Worldwide, Airbus, HP, GDF SUEZ, Swiss Re, EBRD [European Bank for Reconstruction and Development] and with the presidents of Israel, Iran and Switzerland, and the prime ministers of the Netherlands and Israel. The meeting with the newly elected president of Iran, Hassan Rouhani, was particularly noteworthy as it was the first one within the heads-of-state format. In general, Rouhani's participation in the 2014 Davos forum is highly significant, since this was the first time in at least the last decade that Iran has been represented at this summit in Davos, which provides hope that there will be a "thaw" in relations between the Islamic Republic of Iran and the West.

It is no secret that the Caucasus-Caspian region is of interest to the world community from the point of view of its geopolitical position at the junction between Europe and Asia and also because of its plentiful oil and gas reserves. Azerbaijan's role is particularly noteworthy in this context. It is precisely Azerbaijan that has initiated and implemented a number of regional energy projects such as the Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum gas pipeline and the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline, which have made their own contribution to broad regional co-operation.

"First and foremost, I would like to note the oil pipeline. This project has linked Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey as regional partners. After the project had been completed, the states of Central Asia began to take advantage of the transit facilities offered by it. 

"Here we can see that all the states involved are gaining advantage from the project. They are acquiring new access to markets and new export routes. In actual fact, after the countries of the Southern Caucasus and Central Asia became independent, energy became an important factor in promoting regional co-operation. We managed to further boost work on this project and at the present time we are working on a transport infrastructure," Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev told the World Economic Forum's 'Eurasia-new frontiers' session in Davos.  

He noted that the customary friendly ties between Azerbaijan and the Central Asian states are allowing a regional co-operation format to be organised. The boosting of economic development in the countries of the region, frequently at a rate exceeding the world average, is further strengthening economic co-operation. But, according to Ilham Aliyev, what is most important is the fact that the political will is there to make this co-operation more in-depth between the countries "which 22 years ago were regarded as members of the big family referred to as the Soviet Union".

In the next few years an important priority for Azerbaijan will be implementing some grandiose energy projects, in particular the second stage in the development of the "Shah Deniz" [Sah Daniz] gas field, including the construction of two gas pipelines - the Trans-Anatolian to Turkey and the Trans-Adriatic from the Turkish-Greek frontier to Italy. 

"These two projects are scheduled to transport natural gas from the enormous gas fields, and this will become a really major infrastructure project in Europe. One of the biggest challenges that we face from the point of view of regional co-operation is to meet the very tight, maximum five-year deadline in completing this project.  The two countries of the Southern Caucasus - Georgia and Azerbaijan- are actively working to do this. And in future the states of Central Asia will be able to join up with the completed infrastructure, since this means that there will be additional opportunities for diversifying energy supplies," Ilham Aliyev said at the WEF session.

But Azerbaijan's contribution to regional co-operation is not limited to this. 

Azerbaijan is recognised as the initiator of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars mainline railway and has allocated Georgia approximately 800m dollars for the construction of its section of the line. 

"This project, which is to link Europe and Asia, is regarded as a new Silk Road. I hope that this railway will be commissioned in 2015. This is to apply both to the transportation and energy links and at the same time to investment in one another's economies. In particular, the countries which have additional financial resources, are seeking new investment opportunities; I believe that today Azerbaijan, Georgia and Central Asia are good places to invest in, since here  there are developing markets, rapid population growth and the potential for dynamic economic development. The new ideas relating to transport, energy supplies and trade, may well become leading trends this year," Ilham Aliyev said.

In promoting its projects for regional integration, bringing the frontiers of Europe closer to the new states in the region, Azerbaijan is expecting similar steps to be taken by the European family. Therefore Baku does not regard co-operation with the European Union as an associate member as sufficient. This is the first time that Ilham Aliyev has publicly announced this. 

"I think that the state of relations between Azerbaijan and the European Union probably requires a higher form of co-operation than an association. Moreover, we do not find the very word 'association' completely acceptable to us. 'An associate member' - what kind of partner is that? There is no definite definition here. Azerbaijan is a self-sufficient country in all senses, both political and economic. In any integration process, progress should be made by gaining additional concessions. For the moment we are not seeing this within the framework of an association," Ilham Aliyev told the [Russian] RIA news agency in the corridors of the Davos forum.

"If there were to be other forms of co-operation, for instance, a strategic partnership, then we could naturally take a look at that," he added.

Ilham Aliyev said that the country was faced with a choice between co-operation with the EU or with the [Russian] Customs Union. "We have very active bilateral ties with the members of the Customs Union. The trade turnover with them is growing and, on the whole, we have high-level political contacts. We have never before been faced with any kind of choices or alternatives. We are working together with the members of the Customs Union and EU members too," he said. 

Besides co-operation in the energy sector, over the last few years Azerbaijan has promoted opportunities for information technology development. The country's geopolitical position at the crossroads of East and West is allowing it to not only promote energy-related projects, but also IT projects. One of these is the actively promoted TASIM, Trans-Eurasian Information Super Highway, which envisages a high-speed broadband network joining up more than 20 countries in Europe and Asia. This project has been approved by the UN General Assembly three times. Besides this, the launching of a telecommunications satellite means that Azerbaijan has now joined the ranks of the space states.

Azerbaijan is already the top country among the CIS [Common-wealth of Independent States] countries in the number of its individual Internet users, according to a survey by the Broadband Commission, "The State of Broadband Report 2013". All in all, out of 194 countries Azerbaijan is in 66th place in the number of individual Internet users, who number 54.2 per cent of the population, while the world average is 35.7 per cent. Naturally, this fact attracted attention at the Davos forum, within the framework of which the "Broadband and Stable Development" session was held, chaired by Azerbaijan's minister of communications and Information Technologies, Ali Abbasov.

 Current Internet broadband problems, ways of tackling them, issues pertaining to the effect of broadband on everyday life and the future financing of broadband development were discussed within the context of the session.

Incidentally, other countries in the region are actively taking advantage of the Davos forum to promote investment opportunities. Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev and Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili who were attending the WEF sessions held a number of productive meetings with representatives of international financial institutions, with individual companies and government delegations from other countries. 

As always, Armenia remained on the sidelines… The last time the leaders of this neighbouring country attended the Davos forum was in 2009, when they evidently wanted to show the world community that it was "interesting" and "promising" to do business with Yerevan.

AT FIRST HAND

"I think that the state of inter-relations between Azerbaijan and the European Union, probably requires a higher form of co-operation than an association. If there were to be other forms of co-operation such as a strategic partnership, then we could take a look at that".

Ilham Aliyev, president of Azerbaijan