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The events that took place on October 15-16 in Baku became an acid test for the government to prove its strength and credibility, and it came out with flying colours. The current government was able to show the world that the stability and nomocracy in the country couldn't be a topic of discussion, and it won't allow the opposition to use this as a tool to fool people of Azerbaijan and the rest of the world community.
Some supporters of the opposition continue to harbor the thoughts that meaning of democracy is synonymous to anarchy. Azerbaijan had already suffered from the performance of the politicians of Azerbaijan National Front (ANF) during their regime during the period of 1992-1993. Principles of the free market economy followed by them seemed like the motto "anarchy is the mother of nomocracy" or at more primitive thinking - sell if you can. This is not surprising that the result of the policy carried out by ANF during their rule had resulted in total destruction of Azerbaijan's economy.
Ten years of hard work of ex-president Mr. Heydar Aliyev turned Azerbaijan into an attractive country in the region for the foreigners and encouraged flow of funds. It is not only the existence of hydrocarbon resources that had attracted the foreign companies into this but the way it was presented on the world arena, a country with its strong cultural traditions and a willingness on the Government's part to move quickly towards democracy. The country takes the leading position among the countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States in the per capita foreign investment. Nowadays, all the
efforts of the government are aimed to the restoration of non-oil sector. The first investment conference "Investing in Azerbaijan: Gateway to the new independent states" organized this summer by the Ministry of economic development with the sponsorship of the World Bank and Switzerland government, is a step towards the right direction. Up to 50 billion dollars of the spare capital is "strolling" in the world every year. Naturally, the governments of many countries are lined up to create more favorable investment climate to attract these spare funds. In such fierce competitive atmosphere, the October riots
carried out by the radical elements of three opposition parties - "Musavat", "Azerbaijan democratic party" and "Umid" delivered a harsh blow to the image that was wonover by the sheer hard work in the past. The majority of world economists will be considering the figures of the deceased per 100 thousand people in the state while analyzing the investment attractiveness of the state, an unfair analogy, but that's the game we can lose badly, and did lose. By the way, some people still can't comprehend how the government of the People's Republic of China (PRC) can feed its billion people and still be the fastest
developing country today. China's attractiveness for the world investors consists of two factors. First, there is the availability of cheap highly qualified man power in the country in comparison with other developing economies. Secondly, in spite of the fact that number of inhabitants in this country is the highest, PRC has the lowest index of crime per 100 thousand people. So, the governmental machinery does implement its functions over provisions to create normalacy in the country.
The following example shows how important it is for the government to fulfill its promised obligations and prove the
investing community that this country is safe for living and investing. The riots in October resulted in situations such cancellation and freezing of contracts and delay of important meetings by the foreign investers. This fact was explained by the president of the steel-casting company - Baku Steel Company also a co-owner of Hyatt Regency hotel, Mr. Paolo Parviz, who found that these ugly events prompted western business circles to cancel reserved rooms or putting off their visits to a later date. However, Mr Paolo Parviz offered quite an acceptable solution to the current problem, who called the
entrepreneurs to open new working places in Azerbaijan and offered to invest 15 millions himself. By the way his appeal has already found favourable reply in the entrepreneurical environment and some business circles from various fields have undertaken obligations to open hundreds of new facilities.
The evidence that the government will continue to create favorable investment climate in the country is a key leitmotif of election campaign of newly elected Azeri President Mr. Ilham Aliyev by promising to open up the non-oil sector and creating thousands of new jobs and "that his
chief goal would be to maintain stability and make this country strong and economically powerful". It is impossible to achieve this without establishing an attractive image of Azerbaijan. It means the job-placement in the non-oil sector, as the oil producing projects realized in Azerbaijan might
open additional 10 thousand new jobs. You will agree that attracting and investing of the capital in the agrarian sector, the machine-building sphere, metallurgy as well as reestablishment of the oil-chemical complex aren't the tasks that could be managed easily. The stability and maintenance of
the nomocracy in the country is of great importance for the country's image if it wants to become a place where an investor not only feels safe but wants to be part of the success story
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