President: By increasing gold reserves, Azerbaijan State Oil Fund earned over $10 billion

President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev has stated that a strategic decision to increase the country’s gold reserves generated more than $10 billion in additional income for the State Oil Fund, amid rising global geopolitical tensions and soaring gold prices.

“Last year, we also made a strategic decision to increase our gold reserves. We clearly could see the geopolitical developments, and I was absolutely sure that the price of gold would go up, and it skyrocketed,” President Ilham Aliyev said in an interview with local television channels on January 5, Caliber.Az reports via local media.

Emphasising the financial impact of this move, the head of state said: “By increasing our reserves of gold, our State Oil Fund earned more than 10 billion U.S. dollars only because of that. But if the price goes down, of course, our reserves will go down. So, now our reserves change every day. Today, probably, they’re 84 or 83. Tomorrow, it will be 85. Nevertheless, this is one of the highest per capita reserves in the world, which any country can have.”

President Aliyev stressed that Azerbaijan’s broader economic strategy is based on maintaining a careful balance between social spending and investment.

“Our entire policy is both socially and investment-oriented. There must be a very delicate balance, an equilibrium between the two,” he said.

The head of state recalled that revenues from economic reforms and major oil and gas projects have primarily been directed towards social priorities, particularly during the years of occupation.

Noting that Azerbaijan, by carrying out economic reforms and implementing oil and gas projects, primarily channeled the obtained revenues into the social sphere, the head of state said: “During the occupation, our main expenses were associated with the military, then with education, then with the internally displaced persons. That is, during the occupation, we provided more than 300,000 internally displaced persons with new houses and apartments, more than 100 settlements were built.”

President Aliyev underlined that longstanding violations and injustices in the social sphere are now being addressed through transparency and reform.

“The violations that existed in this area in the past are being eliminated, injustices are being rectified, and a transparent mechanism is being put in place. This has given us the opportunity to implement several major social reform packages. To be more exact, five social reform packages have been implemented over the past seven years. These reforms have covered 4 million people, amounting to approximately 8 billion manats,” he emphasized.

Looking ahead, President Ilham Aliyev also outlined Azerbaijan’s ambitions in the field of advanced technologies.

“One of Azerbaijan’s goals is to become a regional Artificial Intelligence hub, an IT hub, and I think we have the potential to do that,” he said.

According to the head of state, concrete steps are already being taken to achieve this objective in cooperation with international partners.

Noting that Azerbaijan is working with partners on the creation of data centers, the head of state said: “We have plans and already implemented projects related to the creation of a cyber security center and the training of our specialists – we are sending many specialists to train abroad and at the same time organizing training courses in Azerbaijan – so our target is, along with connectivity, to become a hub for AI and for IT. There is potential. There is a strong political will. And of course, we consider American companies as our main partners.”

By Vugar Khalilov