On January 27th an interactive session on Azerbaijan was held as part of the World Economic Forum`s (WEF) annual meeting in Davos.
President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev attended the event.
Moderator Borge Brende, WEF`s Managing Director, said Azerbaijan had a geographically and strategically important location. Brende hailed Azerbaijan`s development, saying the country managed to record a 9% growth in the non-oil sector despite the ongoing global crisis.
President Aliyev highlighted Azerbaijan`s economic achievements, saying "they were really impressive".
"Our economy has grown 300% since 2004. Of course, we well realize that this growth has been achieved mostly thanks to our oil and gas industry. And this is natural for a country, which has been independent for 30 years."
"By attracting multi-billion investment to oil and gas industry we are diversifying our economy. And now we have set ourselves a new task: we want to double our economic growth, which has already seen a three-fold increase so far. We want to achieve this by developing our non-oil sector."
The President said: "Las year our non-oil industry grew 11%, while the non-oil sector saw a 9% increase."
President Aliyev said his country had a very favorable investment climate: "110 billion dollars have been invested in our country in the past 15 years. Last year alone Azerbaijan saw 20 billion dollars in investment, of which 7 billion dollars came from foreign sources."
The Azerbaijani leader said: "According to the rankings of the World Economic Forum, Azerbaijan is 55th in the world in terms of the competitiveness of the national economy, while we are the first in the Commonwealth of Independent States."
The President highlighted the country`s energy potential.
"Our oil production is 50 billion tons. This year our gas production is forecast to be 30 billion cubic meters, and this figure can reach 50 billion thanks to new projects and investment."
President Aliyev said Azerbaijan played an important role in ensuring Europe`s energy security."
He also emphasized the governemnt`s work to ensure transparency in energy sector.
"Eight years ago we joined the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, and today we are its full member."
Other speakers, including Azerbaijani minister of finance Samir Sharifov, communications and information technologies minister Ali Abbasov, ecology and natural resources minister Huseyngulu Baghirov highlighted the country`s achievements in economic abd banking and financial sector.
The event ended with a question-and-answer session with the Azerbaijani President.

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