EXAM PASSED

Last Friday, the Azerbaijani parliament approved the report of the government of the country for 2013. "The main purpose of economic development is to improve the social welfare of the population. To achieve this goal, macroeconomic stability was maintained, the economy was diversified, and the sustainable development of the regions was ensured last year," Prime Minister Artur Rasizada told MPs in his speech.

The Speaker of the Milli Maclis [parliament], Oqtay Asadov, stressed in his speech that GDP growth in Azerbaijan in 2013 exceeded average global GDP growth almost threefold. "2013 saw growth of the country's economy, although the global economic crisis continued. In 2013, Azerbaijan's GDP growth was 5.8 per cent, while global GDP grew by 2.1 per cent," he said.

Among the important achievements of last year Asadov recalled an increase in the country's strategic currency reserves to 50bn dollars. He added that last year also confirmed forecasts for oil prices, which so many were concerned about (the average oil price was 109.1 dollars).

"Also last year, Azerbaijan's trade with 149 countries totalled 34.7bn dollars, with 44 per cent of the trade falling on EU countries", the Speaker said. Asadov said that in 2013 the average salary in the country increased by 6.2 per cent - to 470 manats and poverty level fell to 5.3 per cent.

It was the social orientation of state spending that was fundamental last year as well. Prime Minister Rasizada noted, for his part, that 32.6 per cent of state budget spending in Azerbaijan, or 6,239,000,000 manats, in 2013 was allocated for socially-oriented spending (science, education, health, culture, and sport).

He said that last year the development of the regions remained the focus of the country's government. In particular, more than 70 per cent of soft loans issued last year by the National Fund for Entrepreneurship Support (NFES) under the country's Ministry of Economy and Industry focused on developing the regions. Overall, Azerbaijan allocated 50.7bn manats towards the implementation of two state programmes for the socio-economic development of the regions, including 34.7bn manats for the implementation of the second state programme (completed in 2013).

"Like in previous years, special attention was paid in 2013 to deepening socio-economic and institutional reforms. One of the important steps made in this regard was the expansion of the 'ASAN' Service, which is built on innovations and was established at the personal initiative of President Ilham Aliyev. As a result, the quality of services provided by the state to the population improved significantly and principles of transparency were ensured," the prime minister said.

As for another area that is important for the country, which the prime minister's report also highlighted - defence spending - it became known that in 2013 Azerbaijan allocated 3bn manats for it. "As in previous years, the cabinet of ministers paid special attention to this priority - improving the country's military power, strengthening its defence capability and supplying the Armed Forces with state-of-the-art equipment and weapons. In accordance with army-building work, work continued to improve the combat readiness and professionalism of the military and to step up their social security," Rasizada said.

At the same time, the total volume of investments in Azerbaijan's economy from all sources in 2013 was 28bn dollars, which is 8.7 per cent more than in 2012.

Of the total volume of investments last year, 20.8bn dollars were invested in Azerbaijan's non-oil sector, and 7.2bn dollars were invested in the oil sector. Compared with 2012, investments in Azerbaijan's non-oil sector in 2013 increased by 7 per cent.

As is known, investments in the country mainly go towards the development and implementation of infrastructure projects, which is producing positive results already. For example, Rasizada said, 55 per cent of the population in Azerbaijan are now receiving uninterrupted supplies of drinking water. He said that 3,400 km of water supply pipelines and 1,200 km of sewer pipelines have been laid in the republic in the past 10 years.

Last year also saw continued work to improve the living conditions of IDPs, and 29,000 people were relocated to new flats.  Last year, 637m manats, which is 5.8 times more than in 2003, were channelled into resolving social problems facing IDPs. Over the past 10 years, the Azerbaijani government has channelled a total of 3.6bn manats into improving IDPs' living conditions.

In one word, the latest discussions of the socio-economic results of last year were successful. Parliamentari-ans were satisfied with the government's work. Albeit, they expressed a number of wishes regarding resolution of problems in areas such as introduction of health insurance in the country, improving the quality of education, etc. That is to say, the cabinet of ministers once again received a firm "A" from MPs with the hope that the positive trends will continue in the current year.