RusEnergy

ST. PETERSBURG, June 14 (RIA Novosti - Northwest) - Investment in Azerbaijan is on the up and likely to experience unprecedented growth, the republic's President Ilkham Aliyev announced, citing International Monetary Fund data. "This investment policy has resulted in the investment of $24 billion into the Azerbaijani economy in the past ten years. This is one of the highest indexes in the region per capita," Aliyev said Tuesday at the 9th International Economic Forum in St. Petersburg. "According to the data of the International Monetary Fund, this year the economic growth rate in Azerbaijan will amount to 18%, the highest index in the world," he said. Aliyev said that though the poverty level in the republic has dropped by 9% in the past year and a half, it still cause for great concern. "Economic contacts between Russia and Azerbaijan are now in a period of a rapid rise. At the beginning of 2004, the presidents of the two countries set the task of doubling trade, and now, in less than two years, it has been fulfilled," Aliyev said. "The growth in trade is very high, some 50-60%. The main thing, however, is that the potential of our countries makes it possible to achieve more," he said. "The further development of our economic and political contacts will enable us to carry out our joint projects more closely and to cooperate even more actively at the regional level."