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President Ilham Aliyev: â€œWe do not carry out reforms to win somebodyâ€™s favorâ€

08 October 2008 14:37 (UTC +04:00)

Every region of Azerbaijan is developing, new enterprises, buildings, social and industrial facilities are constructed everywhere. A great work is done for the development of the transport sector in Azerbaijan. It is enough to enumerate new airports built in the country to see rate of development of the air transportâ€, said President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev at the inauguration of Lankaran Airport during his visit to the southern region.
The president said Baku International Airport was reconstructed in 1999 after the long break and new airports were handed over for the exploitation in 2004 in Nakhchivan, in 2006 in Ganja and this year in Zagatala and Lankaran. Presidnet Aliyev said Lankaran Airport, which would carry out the international flights, met all modern standards and would promote the development of southern region. The president underlined this giant facility as an important event in the countryâ€™s life.
â€œWe donâ€™t restrict our work with the construction of airports onlyâ€, said President Ilham Aliyev and added that modern Boeing, Airbus and ATR planes were bought and 12 of them were already involved in the flights and 8 planes more would be brought to Azerbaijan in near future and 20 modern planes would be added to the Azerbaijan Air Lines park. â€œWe want Azerbaijani companies to take worthy places not only inside the country, but in the world scale as well, to make local and foreign investments, to receive actives and to become world-scaled companiesâ€.
The head of state noted that investments were made in other countries too, but large part of investments was put in Azerbaijan and more than 5 billion USD were invested this year with the government support. Ginat projects are carried out in the country for the development of the transport sector. New tankers were bought for the Caspian Shipping, railways were repaired and construction of Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway started. This grandiose project will meet Azerbaijanâ€™s great economic interests and unite Asia and Europe, which will increase the countryâ€™s transport opportunities and to meet our political interests, said the president.
The head of state named Azerbaijan as an irreplaceable country for the transport and energy corridor. â€œWe achieved it with our purposeful and practice work. Roads are rapidly reconstructed in the country. The roads united Azerbaijanâ€™s capital with all borders, as well as Baku-Astara road are constructed now. A part of this road is ready and construction of other part will be completed in the next tow years. All projects, including transport projects are implemented at the level of world standards. All these measures seek only one goal: establishing the modern transport infrastructure in Azerbaijan. And this will first of all extend Azerbaijanâ€™s economic growth, give impetus to the development of the regions and serve the peopleâ€™s welfare,â€ he said.
Touching upon the implementation of â€œState Program on Socio-Economic Development of Regionsâ€ the President underlined that the countryâ€™s economy grew 2.7 times and that indicator had no analogue in the world.
â€œSuccessful implementation of the state program both revived the regions and gave impetus to the development of non-oil sector. Reconstruction works, new facilities, schools, medical centers, infrastructural projects, new jobs â€“ all this increases the power of the country. We do not carry out reforms not satisfy somebody. All our reforms have concrete meaning, the aim of these reforms is to improve peopleâ€™s welfare, strengthen economic potential and increase the role of our state in the region and the world,â€ the President said.
â€œWe are successfully realizing oil strategy initiated by national leader Heydar Aliyev,â€ the president said and added that Azerbaijan was not dependent on anybody, the countryâ€™s future development strategy based on domestic resources and economic reforms would be continuous.
â€œIt is quite wrong to link all achievements of Azerbaijan to oil. Actually, our achievements are based on serious economic reforms,â€ he said.
The head of state expressed his confidence that Azerbaijan would continue to develop in future.
The President participated in the inauguration of some more facilities in Lankaran and ended his visit to the southern region.