12:23 - 7.09.2018

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September 7, Fineko/abc.az. Azerbaijani Competitiveness Forum 2018 has started in Baku today with organizational support of the Business Council for International Understanding (BCIU) of the United States together with the Centre for Analysis of Economic Reforms & Communications (CAERC).

Forum moderator and BCIU vice president Jeffrey Donald underlined the importance of holding an event of such scale in Azerbaijan for expansion of international trade and business ties.

Addressing to the forum, First Deputy Prime Minister Yagub Eyyubov stressed that under the leadership of President Ilham Aliyev, all-round reforms on sustainable competitive development of the economy have been implemented in Azerbaijan over the last few years. He noted that complex measures have been taken to diversify the economy, increase the volume of non-oil exports, in the centre of attention there was development of relations between the state and entrepreneurs, improvement of business and investment environment, stimulation of the non-oil sector, state support for small and medium-sized businesses.

"Thanks to all those reforms in recent years, Azerbaijan has become the most dynamically and steadily developing country in the world. The high-level implementation of the decisions taken on the instructions of the head of state made it possible to ensure optimal profitability of business activities, create a business environment based on the principles of competitiveness, increase the investment attractiveness of the country, implement important reforms in the field of improvement of legislation and management, and these factors contributed to the further improvement of Azerbaijan's position in international rankings," Eyyubov said.

In his turn, CAERC executive director Vusal Gasimli noted that the flight from Azerbaijan to 50 countries encompassing half the world's consumers lasts for within 4 hours: "Our country with free trade agreements has access to markets with the population of 270 million people and GDP of $1.6 trillion. "Azerbaijan Competitiveness Forum 2018" opens up new opportunities for investment growth, which will ensure sustainable economic development between the government and the us business community. The diversified transport and logistics infrastructure along the North-South and East-West transport corridors creates new opportunities for the integration of our country.

The conference discusses the favorable business environment created in our country, the steps taken to foster business and raise investments, a number of issues related to financing, prospects of the financial sector, energy, infrastructure, taxes, agriculture.