Press Review January 6, 2018

The development of educational institutions in the country, problems in the non-oil sector, and the uncertainty of the poverty criterion in the country are the leading topics of today's press.

The newspaper Azerbaijan writes about the construction of new schools and educational institutions, and about the government"s attention to and concern with the development of education.

The author emphasizes the Heydar Aliyev Foundation's concern with strengthening the logistics of schools and the work of First Vice President Mehriban Aliyeva.

The article notes that 71 schools were built in 2017, and presents other statistics.

The newspaper Echo published an article entitled Azerbaijan Not to Solve Main Problems in 2018 - Expert.

Solving the main problems would let reduce imports and preserve a significant amount of foreign currency in the country, reduce the cost of goods, support the domestic producer, and create jobs. But we cannot achieve this in 2018, for solving such complex problems will take several years. In general, many industries have accumulated a sufficient number of problems, so a comprehensive governmental approach is needed to resolve them, the article says.

The newspaper Novoye Vremya published material on attempts to eliminate poverty in the country. Today, the poverty level in Azerbaijan is 5.6% - slightly higher than a few years ago, when the figure was called 5%. However, it is rather difficult to understand from official data who are the poor in Azerbaijan. It is possible that when determining poverty, they start from the criterion of need for appointment of targeted social assistance, which has been set at 130 manats this year.

It is worth noting that the number of the poor is never called, as, for example, in neighboring Russia.