Domestic

The President noted that Azerbaijan is on the 18th place for its macroeconomic stability “. The Main rating agencies that lower credit rating of the developed countries in Europe, increased Azerbaijan’s credit rating. “Fitch”, “Standard & Poor’s”, “Moody’s” -3 main rating agencies have increased our credit rating that become reality owing to work and conducted reforms.

The President also mentioned that payment of compensation for the soviet period’s banks savings has been started and in Azerbaijan this process will be the shortest with the highest ratio among the CIS countries

The Head of the State also mentioned average salary and pension are increased and the showing is one of the highest among the CIS area.
“The average salary in Azerbaijan is around 500 dollars, average pension is 190 dollars. The growth is rapid but we cannot be satisfied with this,” said the President. .

The head of the state noted that pensions and salaries are increased year to year. “At the moment pensions are about 40 percent of salaries and this is on the same level with the developed European countries.”

Azerbaijani President also touching regional development noted that since the beginning of this year 94 thousand new jobs were opened and 73 thousand of them are permanent jobs. “Since social-economic development program was started in 2004, 1.1 million new jobs were opened including 800 thousand of them are permanent,” said Ilham Aliyev.

President Ilham Aliyev touching the achievements in the field of social infrastructure noted that 188 new schools and corps were constructed and capital repairs were done in 103 schools. ”This process has a wide scope both in Baku and in the regions. Until the next school year there will be not only unsafe schools but also buildings without repair. The huge work is also being done in the regions in this direction. Probably, it will take a little more time to solve this issue in the regions.”

President Ilham Aliyev also talking about the results of Olympics and Paralympics noted that Azerbaijani Olympians held the 24th place for the number of medals, the 30th for the quality of the medals, the 15th place among European countries, the 3rd among Muslim countries. Paralympics competitors held the 27th place and got 12 medals including 4 gold medals. “For the development of sports there is a need for the state support and means, a training process should be on the high level, there is a need for infrastructure projects. In Azerbaijan, 35 regional Olympic Centers function and around 10 Olympic Sports Complexes are being constructed”.

Ilham Aliyev said that Azerbaijan has achieved great success in the international arena and is involved actively in the meetings of the UN Security Council and shows a principal stand. "When in October of last year – a year has passed - we became a member of the Security Council, I said that we will defend justice and international law in this organization in my address to the nation and we are keeping our word as always. Our position is met with great sympathy and respect. I want to say once again that we defend justice and international law, "he said.

The President noted that the support provided to Azerbaijan during election as a member of the UN Security Council, has already been reflected in other formats. "As you know, Azerbaijan’s candidacy was supported by 155 states. Recently, 120 countries adopted a resolution at the summit of the Non-Aligned Movement on the Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict that the conflict can be solved only within the territorial integrity of countries. This is our next great diplomatic achievement and another defeat of Armenia. Because120 countries cover the majority of the world community. There are a little more than 200 countries in the world. 120 of them support our territorial integrity and see the settlement of the conflict on the basis of this principle. If we take into account the decisions and declarations of NATO’s Chicago summit - of course, NATO members can not be members of the Non-Aligned Movement - and there was also publicly stressed that the Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict should be solved on the principle of territorial integrity. This is also another defeat of Armenians and our next achievement. That is, three-fourths of the world community sees the solution of the problem on the principle of territorial integrity. Of course, this is a very fair position, and there can not be any other positions and options," he said.


The President also noted that there is a huge interest for cooperation with Azerbaijan from non-traditional continents, particularly from Latin America. "We are establishing very close relations with the Latin America countries and see that these links are very sincere and are based on bilateral respect, interest and friendship. Relations with each country should be on these principles. We have stated this repeatedly. I have repeatedly said that Azerbaijan accepts only equal relationships. If someone thinks that he can make us obey his will, he makes a mistake. We accept only the principles of equality, mutual interest and non-interference of each other’s affairs. We are establishing a close relationship with Latin America on these principles and I think this is a very promising direction for both foreign policy and the solution of economic issues. Both a foreign policy field and bodies having close ties with economy were instructed that we need to establish relations with Latin America more intensively. Of course, we have friendly relations with traditional partners. Naturally, these relations will continue. "

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