World Economic Forum in Baku - 2

Interview by Ramin Naziev, Baku, exclusively for "Vestnik Kavkaza"

From April 7-8 Baku hosted the World Economic Forum, a visiting session of the Davos Forum entitled "Strategic Dialogue on the Future of the South Caucasus and Central Asia." One of the participants of the forum, Vugar Bayramov, the director of the Center for Economic and Social Development, Doctor of Economic Science, talked about the results of the forum with Vestnik Kavkaza.

- Did the forum discuss the development of a general strategy for the development of the South Caucasus and Central Asia?

- The work on scenarios has been conducted for 18 months, and the forum held in Baku can be seen as a presentation of the project. Leading economic experts were invited to the forum to create multi-vector development plans for the region. In the near future more enhanced cooperation should begin on the basis of these plans. The forum's participants agreed on the need to increase the economic potential of the region's investment, to strengthen economic relations between the countries of the South Caucasus and Central Asia. These plans will be implemented on the basis of specific platforms and scenarios that will be discussed and approved at future regional forums.

The project is being implemented in order to discover and introduce the new economic potential of the region, to achieve an increase in direct investments, enhance economic integration, create a balanced system of international trade and develop the non-oil sector. The past forum will boost the development of the region in a certain way.

- What is the different between a traditional World Economic Forum in Davos and the Baku Forum?

- The forum that takes place in Davos is a traditional annual forum, it invites more countries and government officials, all global economic developments of the year are discussed there, the forum's participants present concrete proposals to solve economic problems. The Forum which was held in Baku was only regional. Such regional forums have been held in Beijing, Moscow and Istanbul.

Our forum was attended by official representatives of those countries, companies and research institutes that are interested in the South Caucasus and Central Asia. The Baku Forum was associated with increasing integration between the countries of the region, as well as between the region of the South Caucasus and Central Asia on the one hand and the EU, US, Japan, South Korea, and China on the other hand. It is impossible to discuss in detail problems of a particular region at a traditional Davos Forum, while regional forums allow for difficulties and prospects of success in solving specific problems faced by certain states to be determined. This forum was more important for the countries of our region than the Davos Forum which took place in January.
 
- Is it important to hold such forums in the region on a systematic basis?

- The Davos Economic Forum does not consider this event as an isolated incident. With the help of this event the Davos forum comes to our region. Baku has played a special role in this process by creating an opportunity for the participants of the forum to get familiar with the region.

This was the first, but not the last forum in our region. The possibility of organizing new events in our region will be discussed. Already in September we are planning to hold a new forum that will cover the South Caucasus region, Central Asia and Mongolia, which is also a post-socialist country. In January 2014 the countries of our region will meet again in Davos. The organization of such events is expected to continue in 2014.

- Will the forum help attract investors to the countries that are not related to oil and gas? And what areas of the Azerbaijani economy can expect an influx of foreign investment?

- The forum was held on the initiative of the President of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev. The decision to hold the forum in Baku was reached on January 23 at a meeting in Davos between President Ilham Aliyev and the executive chairman of the World Economic Forum, Klaus Schwab. If our president did not have such an initiative, it is unlikely that this forum would have been held in the region. The state is interested in supporting the development of the non-oil sector. If we look at the list of participants in this forum, there were representatives of the non-oil sector, dealing with communications, agriculture and processing. There were large companies from the industrial and financial sectors. Having held the forum, Azerbaijan can receive great benefits regarding attracting new funds in the non-oil sector. It is also expected that foreign investment will become involved in information and communications industry, because Azerbaijan has presented its capabilities in this sector as very high. New investments in banking, insurance and financial sectors are expected. Many foreign companies were interested in investing in the tourism sector of Azerbaijan, since tourism has become one of the priorities of the Azerbaijani economy.