Opening speech by Ilham Aliyev at the reception of the delegation of Movement of the Enterprises of France

I am very glad to see you. I hope that your visit to Azerbaijan has been interesting. Many companies you represent have been working in our country for many years. In other words, we are familiar with each other.

I remember the meetings held with the MEDEF in France, as well as in Baku. This is the fourth meeting, which is evidence of regular contacts between us. This is very good, because we have a joint and common interest in developing the cooperation between our countries in all fields, including the economic sphere. Of course, our relations are underpinned by political communication. We are very pleased that the relations between France and Azerbaijan have a good history. It is a history of active collaboration and partnership.

You probably know that President Hollande has visited our country twice and President Sarkozy once. I have paid several visits to France – state, official and working. There is a very active political dialogue and consultations between us, and these ties create conditions for a broader economic cooperation. We have accumulated extensive experience in various fields. In fact, this cooperation began with the oil and gas sector. The biggest French investments, of course, occurs on the oil and gas industry. Of course, given the priority of economic diversification, we would like to see more investment in other sectors. I am sure that after this visit we will have more projects which can be implemented. Our economic cooperation is already quite diverse and covers the areas of transport, air transport, public transport, metro, space, etc. French companies are helping us create a space industry.

We have put our first satellite into orbit. You are now preparing a second satellite. We look forward to launching cooperation in the agricultural sector. A number of small projects have already been started. This has great potential and is one of Azerbaijan’s top priorities in expanding export opportunities.

We have good cooperation in the humanitarian sphere and in the field of education. I hope you can visit the French Lyceum in Baku. This high school is a good example of our partnership. We are also working on the creation of a joint university. There is also a beautiful French Quarter being created within the White City. It is reminiscent of Paris. If you get a chance, go there, it is an interesting place, especially when you consider that this area used to be called the "Black City" because of the oil refining facilities built there a hundred years ago. The entire surrounding area was contaminated. Today, this project is called the "White City." It has a symbolic name. A large and even a huge part of the project envisages the creation of the Paris Quarter. Of course, the humanitarian sphere does not create any direct business activity. However, it plays a very important role in promoting friendly relations and creating mutual understanding and partnership.

I hope that in addition to cooperation in the fields of energy, transport, aerospace industry and other traditional areas I have already mentioned, we can focus now on the sectors that are a priority for Azerbaijan. In other words, we expect to reduce the dependence on oil prices, the oil and gas sector and establish a sustainable economy capable of providing a good standard of living for our people. We are working in this direction, carrying out economic reforms and reforms to increase employment opportunities in Azerbaijan. In recent years, our economic achievements are quite impressive, I think. We have resolved many social problems, reduced the poverty rate to 5 per cent. Unemployment is practically on the same level. There is a favorable investment environment in our country. Over the last 15 years, investment in excess of $200 billion has been made in Azerbaijan. Half of this investment is foreign. It is true that the bulk of foreign investment has been made in oil and gas sector. Today it is necessary to pay more attention to other areas of the economy. The situation with the oil price has certainly had a negative impact on our economy. This is mainly linked to the revenues obtained previously. And now when the oil price has fallen three to four times, our revenues have decreased three- to fourfold accordingly. We want to compensate for this by more robust reforms and greater attention to the non-oil sector. Currently, this sector accounts for about 70 per cent of the gross domestic product, and I believe that it is good evidence of diversification. We still have much work to do. Our plans for 2016 are associated with stabilization. This is already happening.

The financial situation is stable now. At the same time, budget revenues are at a good level. The 2017-2018 period will be one of very active development of the non-oil sector. State and private investments are already planned. The priority, of course, will be infrastructure projects. We also expect foreign investment in areas of interest to us. We must find a balance between the interests of investors and those of our country. Until now, I think we have coped quite well with this task. However, this year is one of a new economic situation. As I have repeatedly pointed out, we have entered a post-oil period. We can’t say that the petroleum era is over. We simply have to leave aside this factor and shape our economic strategy as if we did not have oil and gas.

Of course, the experience of developed countries not rich in energy resources, including France, is a good example. I am confident that dependence on oil and gas production in Azerbaijan will not be as noticeable in the coming years. In short, I want to thank you for visiting our country with such an impressive delegation once again. This is a good indicator of the interest of French companies in our country. We are also interested in working with French companies. I do hope that you will have very interesting meetings, as a result of which we will have new projects and contracts, and our cooperation will rise to a new level. Once again, welcome!