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The Business Yearâ€™s special edition presented in Azerbaijan

08 May 2012 15:21 (UTC +04:00)

Baku. Rashad Suleymanov â€“ APA. Presentation of â€œAzerbaijan 2012â€, special edition of â€œThe Business Yearâ€ magazine has been held in Baku today. APA reports that Azerbaijani government and state officials, MPs and members of public community participated in the event.

Regional director of the magazine Betul Cakaloglu informed about the special edition and said that this edition was dedicated to the Eurovision 2012 Song Contest. The magazine published interviews with President Ilham Aliyev and president of Heydar Aliyev Foundation Mehriban Aliyeva, about 160 interviews with state officials and businessmen.

Head of the socio-political department of the Presidential Administration Ali Hasanov said in his speech that the world focused attention on Azerbaijan due to Eurovision song contest: â€œWe are proud of our culture, we are proud that we are Azerbaijanis. Our neighbors tried to benefit from the culture of Azerbaijani people for creation of their culture.â€

Hasanov said that some NGOs, media outlets seriously worked to exert pressure on the European Broadcasting Union in order not to hold the Eurovision: â€œThey try to exaggerate 2-3 incidents and damage the countryâ€™s image. Unfortunately, some information agencies and televisions in the world want to monopolize information sphere. We must struggle against the slanders damaging our image. Azerbaijan left behind some European countries for its national and moral values, political pluralism and religious tolerance, some forces that look at it with jealousy try to damage our countryâ€™s imageâ€.

Hasanov noted that Eurovision was a goal, but not a chance for Azerbaijan: â€œThe purpose is to inform the world community about Azerbaijanâ€™s culture and tolerance. We will show to the world that we can not only hold the Eurovision, but even we can organize it better. The visitors of our country will return as friends of Azerbaijanâ€.

Minister of Culture and Tourism Abulfaz Garayev said that information about the tourism potential of Azerbaijan was presented in 15 countries and the country participated at least in 10 exhibitions: â€œ2 234 000 tourists arrived in Azerbaijan last year and numbers of tourists increased 14%.â€

Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Central Bank of Azerbaijan Elman Rustamov noted that Azerbaijan is one of the countries which came out proudly from the financial crisis: â€œThe problem of poverty was solved in the country. More than 4 million people got away from poverty level. Poverty level reduced 4 times over last 8 years, this process demands several decades in some countries. The state investments increased 40 times over last 8 years and exceeded USD 32 billions. The strategic resources prevailed over the state debt for 10 times. Average annual income of the population increased 22% over last 10 years. The number of foreign trade partners, as well as volume of the economy will double next 10 years and Azerbaijan will enter the group of high-yielding countries.â€

Executive director of the State Oil Fund of Azerbaijan Shahmar Movsumov said that more than USD 70 billions was transferred to the fund: â€œThe fund financed many socio-economic projects. Currently, there is more than USD 32 billions in the fund. Azerbaijan joined the international transparency initiative.â€

Regional director of The Business Year magazine Jason Nash, representative of Gilan Holding Rashad Gasimov and other persons made speeches in the event.