Gudrat Hasanguliyev, chairman of the Justice, Law, Democracy (AHD) Party and member of parliament, answered questions from the party’s press service.
Xalqcəbhəsi.az presents the interview:
– Gudrat bey, the draft state budget for 2027 forecasts an increase of 625 million manats or 1.6% compared to the approved budget for 2026. Do you consider this sufficient?
– Our economy is highly dependent on the energy sector. Despite a significant rise in oil prices on the world market, oil production in our country has decreased, and it is forecasted that oil and gas revenues in next year’s budget will decrease by 0.92 billion manats compared to this year. State budget revenues are projected at 39.324 billion manats, of which 11.900 billion manats will be transferred from the Oil Fund. To achieve a significant increase in budget revenues, we must achieve an economic breakthrough. For this, major economic reforms must be implemented, and a “Foreign Investment Attraction Strategy” must be prepared to attract foreign investment to the country. Without creating new production and processing enterprises and developing tourism, it will be impossible to build a strong economy and a welfare state in our country.
– What can be proposed to attract foreign investment?
– We have laws on “Protection of Foreign Investments” and “Investment Activity”. However, experience shows that this is not enough. While direct foreign investment in our country was 7.05 billion dollars in 2024, this figure was 6.60 billion dollars in 2025. We have the potential to attract more investment. We must achieve peace with Armenia, and in addition to maximum protection of property (which is only possible through judicial reforms), there must be “predictable profitability” for foreign investors. An investor must believe that their project will generate profit in a 10-15 year perspective. For this, there must be long-term tax stability, predictable electricity, gas, water, and logistics costs, clear rules for the repatriation of currency and profits, and rapid electronic licensing. But experience shows that these are also not enough to attract investment to the country. We must meet with every foreign investor we are interested in and present them with ready-made packages. The package should include the project, infrastructure, raw materials, labor force, sales market, including access to the regional market, state concessions, and expected profitability. The activities of AZPROMO should be strengthened, the number of Azerbaijan’s investment offices abroad should be increased, and results should be demanded from them.
Also, if a large foreign company wants to build a factory in Azerbaijan but cannot find engineers, programmers, technicians, managers, and skilled workers, it will not invest. Therefore, vocational education and universities should be adapted to the needs of investors, and the study abroad program should be expanded. I hope that the work being done in this direction in our country will be accelerated.