President: Azerbaijan ranks 55th out of 165 countries in 2021 Sustainable Development Report with best result in region

This year marks the 60th anniversary of the establishment of the Non-Aligned Movement, President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev said speaking at the 76th session of the UN General Assembly in a format of a video address, Report informs.

The head of state noted that with a unanimous decision of 120 NAM Member States, Azerbaijan undertook the responsibility to chair the Movement for three years at its 18th Summit of the Heads of State and Government held in Baku in October 2019.

"Azerbaijan is strongly advocating for upholding international justice, norms of international law and defending legitimate interests of Member States of the Movement. This year, the Member States of the Movement unanimously decided to extend Azerbaijan’s chairmanship for one more year until late 2023. It is a sign of recognition and appreciation of Azerbaijan’s successful and effective steering of the Movement in this challenging time for the whole world," President Ilham Aliyev said.

He added that the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals is of particular importance for Azerbaijan.

"Azerbaijan is among 12 countries around the globe and is the first in our region that has submitted its third Voluntary National Review Report on the implementation of the 2030 Agenda.

"Scoring 72.4 out of 100 points possible on the SDG achievement index, Azerbaijan ranks 55th out of 165 countries in the 2021 Sustainable Development Report with the best result in the region. The report highlights Azerbaijan’s progress in areas such as poverty reduction, healthcare, nutrition, women’s labor force participation, clean water and sanitation, access to energy, internet usage, threatened species survival, as well as improving population welfare and sustainable development of cities and communities.

"Azerbaijan actively participates in building regional connectivity projects, such as East-West, North-South, North-West transportation corridors, thus becoming one of Eurasia's primary and reliable transport and logistics hubs. We have put into operation the Baku International Trade Seaport with cargo handling capacity of 15 million tons per year, which can be increased up to 25 million tons per year depending on the needs," the head of state said.