Media Review January 12, 2019

Today"s newspapers write about the speech of the head of state on the country's economic indicators, the elimination of a simplified visa for Iraqi citizens.

The newspaper "Azerbaijan" gives a speech by Ilham Aliyev at a meeting of the Cabinet of Ministers on January 11 following the results of 2018. Last year, GDP growth was 1.4%, development in the non-oil sector was 1.8%, industrial production grew 1.5%.

In the non-oil sector, industrial production increased by 9.1%. Inflation is only 2.3%, money incomes of the population increased by 9.2%, the rate of manat is stable, growth in agriculture was 4.6%.

According to the president, in 2018, investments in the country's economy amounted to 17.2 billion manat, of which 11 billion manat were directed to the non-oil sector.

External debt fell from 22.8% to 19%. Foreign exchange reserves equal to $ 45 billion. The President noted that in 2018, 118 thousand permanent jobs were created, unemployment remained low, exports increased by 36%, reaching 19 billion dollars, the positive balance in foreign trade amounted to 8.6 billion dollars.

Site "Müsavat. com" writes about the reasons for the elimination of simplified visas for tourists from Iraq. Among them: high prices in Azerbaijan, and the anti-Azerbaijani campaign in Iraq. For example, Iraqi blogger Ali Athab claims that 8,000 Arabs were infected with AIDS in Azerbaijan.

Last year, Iraqi TV shot a half-hour report about Baku, which said that more than 600 Iraqis had contracted AIDS and other infectious diseases, and 8 people died.

Such propaganda harms the image of Azerbaijan, which has affected the abolition of the simplified visa regime for Iraqis. Here, an important role could also be played by the issue of security in order to prevent the arrival of members of radical religious groups in Azerbaijan.

The site "Azadlıq.info" published an article entitled "Family Governance and the Trampled People". It states about poor financial moral state of people. In addition, most of the population have no job and housing. The author claims that the authorities do not create equal conditions for their citizens, feudal relations reign in the country, the state does not provide citizens with job.