The shares of military expenditures in Armenia and Georgia’s budgets are higher than Azerbaijan

November 19, 2012
The shares of military expenditures in Armenia and Georgia’s budgets are higher than Azerbaijan
The discussion on “ Caucasus 2025: A visions” was held in Geneva, Switzerland on November 16-17. The event was organized by Geneva Center for Security Policy and representatives from Azerbaijan, Georgia, Armenia, Russia and Turkey, including the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs of Switzerland and other international organizations were among attendees. The chairman of Public Initiative Center, Gubad Ibadoglu, including head of Helsinki Civil Assembly on Azerbaijan, Arzu Abdullayeva and chairman of Public Finance Monitoring Center, Ingilab Ahmadov represented Azerbaijan in this meeting.
According to G.Ibadoglu, the only invited guests from Azerbaijan were economists, and the rest participants were politicians, experts dealing with conflictsand diplomats: “The main discussion topic was making initiatives over restoration of peace in the region and combine all efforts towards their resolution. Besides, the regional economic integration, infrastructure and energy projects were also among debated topics.
At the meeting, G.Ibadoglu delivered presentation on comparative analysis on military expenses of 3 South Caucasus countries. He underlined that Azerbaijan is the only state in the region that does not experience any problem to make investments by its own finance: “Armenia and Georgia do not possess such funds and they are facing serious challenges related to investment. In order to resolve this issue both Armenia and Georgia are forced to borrow foreign debts. Currently, the share of foreign debts in GDP of Armenia is exceeded 40 %. Despite of this fact the shares of military expenditures in state budget of both countries is greater than Azerbaijan. Thus, the comparative indicators for 2013 forecast illustrates that the shares of military expenditures in state budget estimated as 21,1 percent, 7,7 percent, and 9,3 percent in Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia respectively.