Press Review 09/12/16

Preparation of strategic roadmaps, the failure of the reforms, the rise in unemployment, the growth of foreign debt, and the path of economic recovery are the themes of today's media.

The Azerbaijan newspaper writes about the strategic roadmaps as a new development strategy. The roadmap will determine the main directions of economic reforms in the period of 2017-2025.

The website Azadliq.info talks about the ineffectiveness of the announced reforms and criticizes the empty promises and senseless orders of the authorities. In fact, the government only increases the prices, cuts jobs and gets into the pocket of the citizens. Most of the activities and steps of the authorities are meaningless.

Echo discusses ways to save the economy of Azerbaijan. For example, experts estimate the Asian Development Bank’s loan of 500 million dollars to finance the overall package worth 1.4 billion dollars. The anti-crisis package includes salary increases of state employees, the increase in benefits for pensioners and families with low incomes, supporting vulnerable people, including refugees. Overall, these measures will cover about 3.7 million people, or one third of the country's population.

Bizim Yol writes about the growing unemployment. MP Fazil Mustafayev says that agriculture and construction are the main areas of unemployment.

It is important to eliminate monopolies, adopt the Code of Competition, and ensure healthy competition.

Yeni Musavat writes that the government is once again in search of a loan abroad. This is due to the obligations of Azerbaijan on large international projects – Shahdeniz 2, TANAP and TAP. These obligations amount to approximately 18 billion dollars. Some of the commitments have been met, but most have not due to the financial difficulties. In the 2017-18 the projects will be mainly completed and in 2020 gas exports to Europe are due to start.