HOW COLD DAVOS EXTENDED A WARM WELCOME TO AZERBAIJAN

The participants in the latest Davos gathering probably had to try hard not to be late for the opening of the 41st World Economic Forum. Judging by reports from Switzerland, the unpredictable winter weather and tight security measures had delayed participants on their way to the congress centre.

But, as the saying goes, better late than never. After all, despite even the unprecedented security measures, the organizers had a nerve-racking experience when there was an explosion at one of the hotels just 2 kilometres from the venue of the summit. A low-power explosive device was blown up at a storage room of the Posthotel Morosani. Two windows were smashed at the hotel, but no one was injured.

In addition, the second post-crisis forum was affected by some other tragic news. The discussions at the main economic forum of the world began with a minute of silence in the memory of the victims of the terrorist act at the Domodedovo Airport in Moscow, and by the end of the forum, the participants followed the news of the revolutionary processes in Egypt, which had already claimed the lives of more than 100 people.

It has become traditional in recent years for Davos, where the international political elite gather for discussions, to pay the greatest attention to discussions on ways of reviving the world economy after the crisis. This year's forum was no exception.

As usual, the participants spoke about the economic growth in developing countries, the debt burden in Europe, the devaluation of the US dollar, the export of US inflation and so on. But the calls that were made in Davos will probably remain just calls. The developed countries are so absorbed by tackling their own problems that they care little about others' advice, and the developing countries are so inspired by their rapid development that they are not going to listen to lecturing by someone else.

Against the backdrop of this division, Azerbaijan fit quite organically into the business-like atmosphere of the forum, choosing to engage in talks with its immediate partners, be they states or major companies.

Overall, this year's forum in Davos was memorable for a great interest towards Azerbaijan, which manifested itself in quite a busy schedule of President Ilham Aliyev's meetings. Some specific agreements were reached too. For example, after the meeting with the participation of the presidents, Ilham Aliyev and Viktor Yanukovich, two documents were signed by Azerbaijan and Ukraine: An agreement on the promotion of cooperation in the field of oil transportation via Ukraine and a memorandum on cooperation and organization of the delivery of natural compressed gas to Ukraine.

Addressing the head of the Azerbaijani state during the signing ceremony, Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich thanked Azerbaijan for its assistance to the Ukrainian people: "The Ukrainian people will never forget the historic decision by your father, Heydar Aliyev, to send fuel and lubricants to Ukraine and supply oil to our refineries when we were going through difficult times. It was a breath of air which Ukraine needed at that time, and Azerbaijan had supplied it by President Heydar Aliyev's decision. You are continuing a good tradition," the Ukrainian president said.

Analysis of the meetings in Davos shows that, together with heads of states and governments, most of the persons who met with the Azerbaijani president have traditionally been heads of oil, gas and associated service companies. During this year's economic forum, the Azerbaijani president met and discussed prospects of cooperation with heads of Statoil ASA, Edison, LUKoil, Total, BP and RWE.

At the same time, players in non-oil markets, in particular, information technologies and communications companies, also demonstrate increasing interest in Azerbaijan. The meetings which Ilham Aliyev held with Chey Tae-won, chairman of the SK Group of companies, Sung Yafang, Huawei Technologies chairman of the board, Tero Kivisaari, president of TeliaSonera Eurasia, and Jean-Philippe Courteois, president of Microsoft International, testify to this.

All these international companies already have experience of cooperation with Azerbaijan, and their heads expressed their interest in broadening it, underscoring that Azerbaijan has proven itself as an attractive country for investors.

The importance of the Azerbaijani president's policy of transforming oil revenues into human capital was stressed during the meetings.

And human capital is not the only benefit. The Davos forum has shown that efficient management of energy resources might foster transformation of Azerbaijan's oil and gas assets into political capital, although this, too, is not an end in itself for Baku. The policy of diversifying the delivery of energy resources also yields results: Azerbaijan is strengthening its international positions as a reliable partner, as meetings with Swiss President Micheline Calmy-Rey, Austrian European and International Affairs Minister Michael Spindelegger, Polish President Bronislaw Komorowski, and British Prince Andrew, Duke of York, testify.

This is also proved by the increased interest which was demonstrated in Azerbaijan at the dinner given by Austria and the Economic Cooperation and Development Organization.

President Aliyev, for his part, said that Baku will continue its policy of diversifying routes of delivering energy resources to the international market, pointing out the country's powerful transport potential which is enhanced by the country's advantageous geographic position. The head of state stressed that Azerbaijan is currently considering reestablishing its traditional ties with Central Asia to increase the effectiveness of projects in the region. "At present, we are working on the East-West and North-South transport corridors. The railroad connecting Turkey and Azerbaijan actually connects not only these two countries, but Europe and Asia because it will provide a railroad link from China to Europe. This will provide new reliable alternatives and will be a useful and efficient route for everyone," the president said.

In short, Azerbaijan had a message to deliver at the 41st World Economic Forum and had offers for partner countries and companies. Ilham Aliyev stressed that Davos demonstrated that "from political and economic points of view, Azerbaijan today is an independent country with its own policy, with a good standing in the region and great hopes for the future".

The only problem which bothers Baku today and hinders the rapid development of the region is the continuing occupation of the Azerbaijani territories by neighbouring Armenia, which the Azerbaijani president reiterated for the guests in Davos.

Incidentally, Armenia did not send its representative to the 41st World Economic Forum. "Against the backdrop of statements by the Armenian authorities about their intention to transform their country into a regional economic centre, this looks strange to say the least," the Armenian web portal lragir.am reports, adding that "there is nothing strange about this, tough. Armenia, which lays claims to regional leadership, knows full well that these are mere words for domestic consumption to be 'fed' to its population. The authorities know this just as well as they know that foreign investors know this too."