Azeri economy strong despite oil price slump: Aliyev

"In the last ten years, Azerbaijan's economy grew more than three times. We managed to diversify the economy and reduce dependence on the energy sector,"  Aliyev said. "The energy sector makes up only about 30 percent of our GDP now."

The president said that the country's policy of diversification led to substantial progress and even now, with the fall of oil prices, Azerbaijan's economy expanded more than 5 percent in the first quarter of this year.

Aliyev said Azerbaijan managed to protect itself from the volatility of oil prices by implementing a diversification policy, drawing in investments, creating modern infrastructure and a good business climate.

The president said Azerbaijan is a country open for foreign investments. In particular, Aliyev said last year Azerbaijan received more than $27 billion of investment, with 30 percent of that being direct investments. He added that in total, Azerbaijan received more than $200 billion of investments during the country’s independence.