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President Aliyev: Transport corridors increase geopolitical importance of Azerbaijan

10 March 2016 07:55 (UTC +04:00)

The president made the remarks during the opening of the 4th Global Baku Forum on March 10.

According to him, Azerbaijan is creating a transportation network. “Azerbaijan has an important geographical position, which gives an opportunity to develop the transport infrastructure. The East-West transportation corridor has recently been launched, and we hope the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway will be commissioned next year,” he added.

Azerbaijan is trying to create a single transport line, President Aliyev said, stressing the importance of the North–South transportation route.

The head of state said since 2004 and up to 2014, Azerbaijan's economy was the fastest growing in the world, noting that Azerbaijan's economy ranks 40th in terms of competitiveness.

The president went on to add that for Azerbaijan, the post-oil period has already started, and not because of reduction of production, but due to the collapse of the oil price.

“This is an absolutely new situation, no country in the world was prepared for that, no one could imagine the fall of oil price would be so dramatic. And it happened within one year," he said. "So we had to work very actively, very efficiently, to reduce negative impacts of this, and now our financial situation is again stable, predictable, and our budget is based on the price of oil of $25 per barrel - a kind of guarantee from any kind of economic complications.”