There is a revealing tension at the heart of Azerbaijan’s economic story. The country is still an energy exporter, and oil and gas remain central to its external trade. However, the investment message coming from Baku is increasingly about what comes after the first phase of energy-driven development.

President Ilham Aliyev used the 2nd Azerbaijan International Investment Forum to make that case. Speaking at an event themed “Restoring Trust in a Fragmented World”, he presented diversification as a process already underway.

President Aliyev said the non-oil and gas sector now accounts for more than 70 per cent of GDP. Why we mention it, because the numbers matter. At the same time, he acknowledged the harder part of the transformation: energy resources still make up the overwhelming majority of exports, and the challenge, therefore, is no longer simply to build a non-oil economy, but to make that economy competitive enough to sell more of what it produces abroad.

Certainly, diversification is not achieved simply by changing the composition of GDP. It requires companies capable of competing in foreign markets, infrastructure capable of moving goods efficiently........

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