About LLDCs
Programme of Action
UN-OHRLLS Mandate
Midterm review
Country profiles
Indicators and statistics
Reports
Resolutions
Key documents
Publications
Key meetings
Events Calendar
Links
Azerbaijan
 
country map
Region: Eastern Europe
Capital: Baku
Population: 8,177,717 (July 2008 est.)
Surface area: 86,600 sq km
Currency: Manat (AZB)
GDP per capita: purchasing power parity - $7,700 (2007 est.)
Historic background:
Azerbaijan - a nation with a Turkic and majority-Muslim population - regained its independence after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. Despite a 1994 cease-fire, Azerbaijan has yet to resolve its conflict with Armenia over the Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh enclave (largely Armenian populated). Azerbaijan has lost 16% of its territory and must support some 571,000 internally displaced persons as a result of the conflict. Corruption is ubiquitous and the promise of widespread wealth from Azerbaijan's undeveloped petroleum resources remains largely unfulfilled.
Economy – overview:
Azerbaijan's high economic growth in 2006 and 2007 is attributable to large and growing oil exports. Azerbaijan's oil production declined through 1997, but has registered an increase every year since. Negotiation of production-sharing arrangements (PSAs) with foreign firms, which have committed $60 billion to long-term oilfield development, should generate the funds needed to spur future industrial development. Oil production under the first of these PSAs, with the Azerbaijan International Operating Company, began in November 1997. A consortium of Western oil companies began pumping 1 million barrels a day from a large offshore field in early 2006, through a $4 billion pipeline it built from Baku to Turkey's Mediterranean port of Ceyhan. By 2010 revenues from this project will double the country's current GDP. Azerbaijan shares all the formidable problems of the former Soviet republics in making the transition from a command to a market economy, but its considerable energy resources brighten its long-term prospects. Baku has only recently begun making progress on economic reform, and old economic ties and structures are slowly being replaced. Several other obstacles impede Azerbaijan's economic progress: the need for stepped up foreign investment in the non-energy sector, the continuing conflict with Armenia over the Nagorno-Karabakh region, pervasive corruption, and elevated inflation. Trade with Russia and the other former Soviet republics is declining in importance, while trade is building with Turkey and the nations of Europe. Long-term prospects will depend on world oil prices, the location of new oil and gas pipelines in the region, and Azerbaijan's ability to manage its energy wealth.
Human Development Index 2008 ranking: 98 out of 177
Official Development Assistance and Major Development Partners: Net ODA to Azerbaijan was US$ 206 million in 2006. The major development partners are IDA, the United States, Turkey and the European Community.
Total External Debt (2007 est.): US$ $2.399 billion
HIPC Position (as of 2008): Not eligible
United Nations Membership date: 2 March 1992
New York Mission:
Permanent Mission of the Republic of Azerbaijan to the United Nations
866 United Nations Plaza, Suite 560
New York, NY 10017
Telephone: (212) 371 2559
Fax: (212) 371 2784
 
Sources:
CIA World Factbook. Central Intelligence Agency. www.cia.gov 
World Development Indicators. World Bank www.worldbank.org
Development, Recipient Aid Charts. Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development. www.oecd.org
Human Development Report 2008.United Nations Development Programme. www.undp.org
                                         
Updated July 2008
 
 
Contacts  |  Site Index  |  Other UN Sites