President Aliyev Highlights Key Outcomes of 2024, Indicates Economic Growth

This week, President Ilham Aliyev discussed several key topics in an interview with local TV channels, highlighting last year’s achievements. The conversation covered economic performance, the Azerbaijan-Armenia peace process and border delimitation, COP29, energy, transport, and reconstruction efforts in the liberated territories.

Here are the key takeaways from President Aliyev's comprehensive speech:

Economic growth

• The gross domestic product has increased by more than 4 percent. In fact, the main indicator for us is the development of the non-oil sector. When we look at overall economic indicators, we first consider the parameters of the non-oil sector. Here too, the development has been more successful, as it has increased by more than 6 percent. 
• Throughout the year, our foreign exchange reserves increased by more than $5 billion. Today, this figure is equal to $72 billion. For a country with a population of 10 million, this is a very large indicator. 
• Our external debt accounts for only 7.2 percent of our gross domestic product. Our external debt, which is equal to $5.2 billion today, will decrease even more over the years.
• This year's budget is at a record high. Budget expenditures exceed 41 billion manats (USD 24.1 billion). The overall budget is more than 48 billion manats (USD 28.2 billion). There has never been such a large budget in the history of Azerbaijan. 
• Over the past few years, four social packages have been implemented and more than 7 billion manats (USD 4.1 billion) have been spent for this purpose. From now on, social and economic development will go hand in hand. As economic opportunities increase, we will always pay attention to addressing social issues – increasing the minimum wage, pensions and social benefits.

COP29

• COP29 was a big challenge for us, and of course, a big opportunity. Our task was to convert the challenge into success.
• One of the main impediments to achieving success is the lack of trust between the Global South and the Global North – between the countries, which are the big polluters, if I could name them like that, and those that suffer from this.
• So, we started to use our homework preparation, being very active in the Global South, having great experience in chairing the Non-Aligned Movement for four years with great success.
• There were attempts to boycott COP29 due to political reasons, and that was very unexpected. I don’t think that any other country which hosted this event faced this kind of resistance. But we also managed to deal with that. We had 76,000 registered participants from 197 countries. Eighty heads of states and governments came to Baku. 
• With respect to the results, many people call it – and I join that – Baku Breakthrough because for almost ten years, the parties could not agree on the carbon market. The first days of COP already started with success, and an agreement on the carbon market – Article 6 of the Paris Agreement – was achieved.
• The main topic of COP was finance. What was achieved is that we tripled the financing for the coming years. Because before COP29, the latest agreed figure was USD 100 billion. So, here in Baku, we made US 300 billion. 
• Another legacy, which I am sure will remain at future COPs, is the creation of the Troika between the current, previous, and future host countries.

D-8 admission

• This organization was established almost 30 years ago at the initiative of Türkiye and includes eight countries. No other members were accepted during these years. Azerbaijan was the first member accepted after the first enlargement decision. Of course, this shows the authority of our country as well as our role in the international arena.
• D8 is the largest organization uniting Muslim countries. It is an organization with a population of more than one billion and accounts for 60 percent of the economy of Muslim countries. If we consider the gross domestic product of this organization, it exceeds 5 trillion dollars. 
• We perceive the interests of all Muslim countries as our own, which is probably why Azerbaijan was the first choice after the decision to expand D8 was made. Of course, our country's economic potential, political weight, and military power were considered as well. Our policy of Islamic solidarity, which I mentioned, was considered.
• It was Türkiye that supported our candidacy from the very first day. But, of course, there had to be a consensus among all member countries, and finally, this consensus was achieved.
• We will be in closer contact with member states. The main issue will be related to the future activities of D8. Of course, we have our own ideas and our own agenda. We will constantly be in contact with member states and making our proposals. I think it is quite realistic that D8 will have great influence as an organization. 

Assistance to post-Assad Syria

• We are very happy that changes have taken place in Syria and, of course, with the relations between Türkiye and the new Syrian government.
• After the collapse of the Assad regime, I called President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and stated that we are ready to stand by Türkiye and have already started doing so. With Türkiye’s support, the first aid convoy was sent. 
• Also, the dispatch of our Foreign Ministry delegation there was also done with the support of Türkiye. In other words, we want to make our contribution here to put an end to terrorism, at least on this border of Türkiye, and I believe this will be a very serious geopolitical change, leading to the establishment of peace, stability, and cooperation in a large geography.
• The changes in Syria make us very happy. First for Türkiye and secondly for ourselves. Because for 12 years, we have had no relations with Syria. Our embassy was withdrawn from there. During the Assad era, Syria always sided with Armenia. It was actually united with Armenia against us. It is enough to look at the letters Pashinyan sent to Assad, the official delegations he sent – the Minister of Foreign Affairs, the Speaker of the Parliament, and his deputy. They considered Syria a close ally, and that has now ended.