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Azerbaijani President: Increase of salaries and pensions is expected this year

30 April 2010 07:50 (UTC +04:00)

The head of state underlined that there is no country developing more rapidly than Azerbaijan.
â€œNot only now, but also within the past 5-6 years Azerbaijan has developed most in the world. It allowed us to solve a great part of the problems. But we should not content ourselves with these achievements. There are a lot of issues to be solved. All the problems of our country should be solved. I want this and we are taking very significant steps for this. There are already good results, we should ensure the development of the country due to the development of the regions. This is the main target now. The situation in the region should be close to the situation in big cities,â€ he said.

According to President, good conditions have been created for entrepreneurship in the country, loans and subsidies are given and the state offers support.
â€œAs a result of the implementation of the State Program on the socio-economic development of the regions, the potential of entrepreneurs have increased. Entrepreneurs are increasing the volume of the investments made in the country. This is a positive case. I am very glad that the majority of the investments made in Azerbaijan are ensured at the cost of the local sources. In the previous years we were dependent more on foreign investments. Now, this dependence has minimized. There is a class of entrepreneurs having great financial means in Azerbaijan. The conditions in the country encourage them to make investments in the economy. It is a very positive case that the money made in the country is invested in Azerbaijanâ€™s economy, local production. In the previous years we were more dependent on the import. Now we are exporting. We export not only fruits and vegetables, but also other products. The state of entrepreneurship is very good in Azerbaijan. The potential of entrepreneurs will increase year after year, their investment in the countryâ€™s economy will also rise. Taking into account that the state gives financial support in the form of loans, subsidies, the development in this sphere will be successful,â€ he said.

The head of state focused attention on the necessity of solution of the problems of not only the owners, but all citizens. â€œWe have opportunities to raise wage of people working for the public sector entities and pensions of retirees and this year we are expected to raise it. Minimum salary and pension was raised significantly in previous years and today Azerbaijan keeps leading position in CIS for these indexes. But it doesnâ€™tâ€™ satisfy us. We have to do so that minimum salary or pensions of the people meet their daily needs. Of course, there is a poor social class in Azerbaijan too, but their number reduces year by year. Today 11 percent of the society lives in poor conditions. It is close to the level of developed countries. Despite that we reduced this index from 49 percent to 11 percent, but it is still considerable figure. I would like that there will not be poverty and unemployment in Azerbaijan. We solved the problem of unemployment in the large cities. People are coming to the large cities to seek employment. But the problem of unemployment remains in the regions. The people from the regions went to foreign countries to seek jobs in previous years, but now they are coming to Baku. It is a great step. But we have to do so that there will be enough jobs and the people can be employed in the regions tooâ€.

The president said successful economic development of Azerbaijan showed its right direction. He added that rightly-directed investment already brought fruits. â€œThe global crisis last year and this year as well showed that the countries, which correctly established its economic policy, had minimum losses during the crisis. We directed resources to the real sector of economy and we are doing it now. Despite reduce of incomes and oil price downturn last year we didnâ€™t cancel the investment and construction projects. The construction of roads, schools, hospitals was not stopped. It is so this year too. All investment projects planned for this year will be carried out. It will enable us not to depend on anyone and to be independent and to move our country confidently forward and to take additional measures for welfare of the Azerbaijani peopleâ€.