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Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev addressed the 71st International Astronautical Congress (IAC 2020) on October 12.

Reminding that Azerbaijan will be hosting the International Astronautical Congress in 2023, Aliyev said that the country first hosted this congress back in 1973.

“It will be symbolic that after 50 years, in 2023, we will host the second Congress in our capital. But at that time Azerbaijan was not independent. Azerbaijan was part of the Soviet Union, was one of the 15 republics of the Soviet Union. And the selection in 1973 of Azerbaijan as a host city for the Congress demonstrated the high intellectual and technical potential of our people and Azerbaijan.”

The president reminded that Azerbaijan today is a member of the space club and with 3 satellites, the country is planning to continue its activity in this direction.

“I’m convinced that the Congress to be held in our capital in 2023 will give additional impetus to the development of space industry in our country.”

Furthermore, Aliyev spoke about Azerbaijan’s progress since the country gained its independence.

"Our country is one of the countries which is active in international arena. Today Azerbaijan is chairing the second after United Nations international body – the Non-Aligned Movement. Our economic performance is reflected in statistics. During the last 17 years our GDP tripled, level of poverty dropped from almost 50 percent to 5 percent, our foreign debt is something around 20 percent of our GDP, and our reserves six times exceed the foreign debt. Now our natural resources serve the cause of development and transformation of natural resources into human capital is one of our main priorities.”

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