Public- discussion held at UNEC: “Tourism in Azerbaijan: A Strategic Review”
Public discussion on “Tourism in Azerbaijan: A Strategic Review” has been held at Azerbaijan State University of Economics (UNEC) on June 9.
Event was realized with joint organization of the Assistant Service of the President of Azerbaijan Republic on Economic Reforms, Ministry of Culture and Tourism and the Center for Economic Reforms Analysis and Communication. The debate attended by the experts on tourism and other areas of economy was arranged to investigate the ways for further development of tourism in Azerbaijan.
UNEC Rector, Professor Adalat Muradov spoke about the steps taken in the direction of the development of country’s economy: “The decline in oil prices on the world market accelerated further development of non- oil sector in Azerbaijan. Thus, the President has signed the Decree on “The Directions of the Strategic Roadmap on the National Economy and main Sectors of the Economy” targeted to provide the sustainability of economic policy and reforms implemented, in-depth analysis of economy and develop new economic development strategy”.
Rector noted that the tourism is one the priority areas of the national economy. The main discussed topic of the event was to investigate the ways of developing one of the most important sectors of economy tourism: “It is primarily important in terms of the quality of the document prepared by the working group.” A.Muradov highlighted that the kind of discussions will be implemented on 11 areas of economy identified on the “Roadmap”.
The Minister of Culture and Tourism Abulfaz Garayev noted that the tourism is one of the priority fields in the non- oil sector of Azerbaijan economy and delivered the information about the work done in recent years. It was noted that Azerbaijan’s tourism industry is rapidly developing as a result of the measures taken in the last few years: “Today, tourism is one of three main areas of the world’s economy developing rapidly. After achieving independence, great projects are being executed for the development of tourism in our country. World-famous brand hotels were located. Now 4, 5 percent of GDP in our country include the income from tourism. It is no coincidence that Azerbaijan is ranked 36th among 141 countries in terms of human resources and labor markets in the “Report on Travel and Tourism Competitiveness by the World Economic Forum of 2015.
The Minister noted positive effects of the development of this industry resulting as the development of this industry. He also stressed that the measures carried out in the country for the development of culture and tourism will further be accelerated.
Making speeches the Director of the Center for Economic Investigations Analysis and Communication Vusal Gasimli, Chairman of the Committee on Economic Policy, Industry and Entrepreneurship of Milli Majlis Ziyad Samadzade, Head of the President Administration Sector Elkhan Mikayilov talked about the affairs done in the direction of development of economy in Azerbaijan. It was noted that major infrastructure projects are being carried out and continued successfully using oil revenues in our country. The necessity of the development of tourism as one of the main directions of the national economy has also been stressed during the speeches.
The event went on with public discussions moderated by the Rector of Azerbaijan University of Tourism and Management, Professor Jafar Jafarov. The development of tourism industry which is one of 11 directions of strategic road map on the main sectors of the national economy was spoken about during the discussions. The participants’ questions were answered.