The World Bank highly appreciates the reforms carried out in Azerbaijan within the framework of economic diversification.
During Baku high-level forum “Economy Diversification – Role of Private Sector” WB Regional Director for the South Caucasus Mercy Tembon stated that initiatives, investments and reforms carried out in Azerbaijan have led to the fact that Azerbaijan rose up to middle-income countries from the list of developing countries.
“I want to congratulate Azerbaijan with this progress, but I’d like to focus on the difficulties the country faced in the process of development and diversification. We are proud and happy to have helped and supported Azerbaijan in this process, but it should be noted that we should not stop. This means that it is necessary to continue to develop and meet new and more complex challenges in accord with the status of the country,” Ms. Tembon emphasized.
She pointed out that until now the economy of Azerbaijan has developed mainly at the expense of state investments, oil economy and consumption growth, and in order to ensure further economic growth it is necessary to change the direction of development.
“Taking into account its new status, Azerbaijan should apply new technologies and other innovations. It is also important to underline that the private sector is the main element of employment growth,” Ms. Tembon said.
