By H. E. Mir-Hamza Efendiyev, Ambassador of the Republic of Azerbaijan  to the Kingdom of the Netherlands. Azerbaijan has come a long way from the challenges it faced upon gaining its independence from the USSR in 1991. At that time, political and socio-economic situation in the country was disastrous, Azerbaijan was on the verge of civil war, and this situation was aggravated by the ongoing Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, resulting in the occupation of 20% of our territories by Armenian military forces. The conflict is still the most painful issue for Azerbaijan and continues to pose a serious threat to regional security in general. Therefore, we expect the international community to demonstrate a firm response to security challenges that persist in the region by consistent commitment to the territorial integrity, sovereignty and inviolability of international borders of Azerbaijan and urge for soonest implementation of respective UN Security Council resolutions adopted in this regard. The situation continued to deteriorate up until the arrival to power of Heydar Aliyev, the late president of Azerbaijan, in 1993. Immediately after, the chaotic situation returned under control, and Azerbaijan rapidly started showing signs of recovery and development. The far-sighted oil strategy of Heydar Aliyev opened new opportunities for the country and just a year after, in 1994, a historical agreement was signed between Azerbaijan and the consortium of foreign oil companies, known as the “Contract of the Century”. This resulted in the oil boom in our country and put a start to the well-known projects related to energy security and diversification such as Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan, Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum, the currently being implemented Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP), and the Trans-Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline (TANAP). Today, President Ilham Aliyev’s successful continuation of this policy, throughout the implementation of complex political and socio-economic reforms in the country ensures stability and dynamic democratic development. One of the main priorities for our government today is the diversification of our economy through directing oil and gas revenues into non-oil sector and successful steps are taken in this direction. Azerbaijan has implemented a series of innovative reforms in every sector of the country’s economy and a significant importance is given to the modernization of public services, modern communication and information technologies. Our country has achieved significant results in the economic diversification process, and for the past year 2014, the share of non-oil sector in the overall GDP counted for 60%, and this positive trend is expected to continue further. The current relations between Azerbaijan and the Netherlands are dynamically developing. Recent years have been rich in reciprocal visits of the heads of states as well as ministerial meetings in different fields, the latter of which took place recently in the framework of the 70th session of UN General Assembly.

Today, more than 100 companies with Dutch capital are registered in Azerbaijan and operate in various business fields. In the period of last two years four business forums between Azerbaijan and the Netherlands were successfully held. It is a positive fact, that according to our Ministry of Economic Development and Industry, for the year 2014, the Netherlands were fourth in terms of foreign direct investments in the economy of our country. Tolerance and dialogue between cultures is a way of life in Azerbaijan. The Government pursue the policy of cultural dialogue and tolerance which objective is to enable the people to live together peacefully and o develop a sense of community. In this regard, “Baku Process” for the promotion of intercultural dialogue was initiated in 2008 and World Forums on Intercultural Dialogue and Baku International Humanitarian Forums held in Azerbaijan each year.

  When talking about the ongoing processes in Azerbaijan, it is important to mention that our country has become a host for many important international events which contribute significantly to the process of growth of interest and tourism in Azerbaijan. Our country is being host to International festivals and contests, such as the “Gabala International Music Festival”, the “Eurovision” song contest in 2012. The Inaugural European Games successfully held in Baku in June this year. Now we have on the agenda the Formula 1 “Baku European Grand Prix” which will take place in 2016, as well as fourth “Islamic Solidarity Games” in Baku in 2017, several matches of UEFA “EURO 2020” and etc. Photography Max Koot Studio.