The International Herald Tribune: "Dutch Disease" Threatens Azerbaijan

PanARMENIAN.Net
26.07.2006 16:34 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ For Azerbaijan, the biggest question at present
is what to do with the so-called "wall of money" that will start
to accrue once the oil begins to flow. Some observers are already
predicting a bad case of pending "Dutch disease"- by which an increase
in oil revenues renders a country’s manufacturing less competitive
by raising the exchange rate – unless Baku manages to divert both
state and private investment into the non-oil sector and addresses
the subject of income disparity between the new rich and the growing
number of disgruntled or desperately poor," Thomas Goltz wrote for
The International Herald Tribune.

"For now, the question of the political ramifications of future
oil-related wealth is on hold as investors, citizens and former
pipe-dreamers celebrate the realization of what is now a "pipeline
to somewhere." I hope my zany motorcycle circus of six years ago
played some little part in this process. I also hope that the current
leadership of Azerbaijan will use the occasion of its new-found wealth
to win more than just fair-weather friends and address some of the
urgent social issues at play here on the shore of the Caspian,"
the observer wrote.