Foreign

Home page

Foreign

Ilham Aliyev: Diversification of economy is Azerbaijanâ€™s main objective

23 January 2018 14:43 (UTC +04:00)

Diversification of economy is Azerbaijan's main objective, said President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev.

“Diversification of economy is our main objective and I think that we’ve achieved a good success in that direction,” the president said addressing the 'Strategic Outlook: Eurasia' panel at the World Economic Forum in Davos on Jan. 23, APA reports.

“When we experienced a dramatic drop of oil prices, I said that for Azerbaijan, the post-oil period has started, and we should forget about oil and gas,” he said. “Of course, we should implement the current projects completely, but as far as source of major income [is concerned], we should look at technology, innovation, industry, entrepreneurship and agriculture.”

"Therefore we introduced very serious reforms, which have already brought good results," added the president.

President Aliyev noted that last year the non-oil sector of Azerbaijan's economy grew by 3 percent and the non-oil industry increased by almost 4 percent.

He went on to say: "So, I should say that the process of diversification is already here, and we have no plans to slow down. Now the price of oil is going up, but it will just increase our reserves."

Azerbaijan managed to optimize its expenses, said President Aliyev, adding. “Despite the decline in oil prices last year, we earned $4.5 billion more and increased our reserves. Oil and gas will continue to be the main part of our economy, though today the non-oil sector is about 70 percent of our GDP. "Our target is to diversify our export, to increase the level of non-oil products in our export portfolio."