BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 5
By Elchin Mehdiyev - Trend:
Azerbaijan’s Sumgayit city is increasing its share in the country’s export of non-oil products, Emin Hajiyev, Azerbaijani MP from the 43rd Sumgayit third constituency, said in an interview with Trend.
“Azerbaijan has been integrated into the global economy, and the consequences of ongoing processes in the world affect it,” the MP said. “The pandemic created additional difficulties for all countries, the think tanks and health centers of the world. The oil exporting countries faced new challenges as a result of the instability in the oil market.”
"A sharp decline in oil prices was also observed several years ago,” Hajiyev added. “Having made a strategic decision, Azerbaijan began to diversify the economy and great success was achieved in this sphere.”
“The share of the non-oil sector in GDP has been steadily growing over the past few years and its real growth in this segment amounted to 3.5 percent in 2019,” the MP said. “An increase of 23 percent was achieved over three months of this year. It is important that 71 percent of tax revenues accounted for the non-oil sector in 2019. Increasing the share of the non-oil sector in the country's export is one of the priorities in the state policy.”
Hajiyev stressed that the state is implementing numerous projects to promote Azerbaijani products in the world markets.
"In particular, the steps have been taken in the marketing to promote the ‘Made in Azerbaijan’ brand,” the MP said. “The entrepreneurs are encouraged. The Azerbaijani trading houses are being created in foreign countries.”
“As a result of such measures, growth is also observed in the non-oil sector,” Hajiyev said. “The export volume amounted to $296 million in the non-oil sector from January through February 2020, which is five percent more than in the same period of 2019.”
Touching on the opening of the gas pipeline with the participation of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev in Sumgayit city, the MP stressed that today Azerbaijan not only is the political and economic leader of the region which has hydrocarbon reserves, but has also turned into the center of the chemical industry.
“Sumgayit’s role must be specially stressed here,” the MP said. “Today it is the second biggest industrial city in the South Caucasus. As a result of the attention and care of President Aliyev, it has become one of the most dynamically developing cities in the region in many spheres.”
“During his participation in the opening of the gas pipeline in Sumgayit, the president touched upon the details of strategic importance in connection with the development of the city. The president stressed that the supply of the city through one line could cause the problems. The commissioned second gas pipeline will fully meet the growing demand for fuel by serving as a guarantee for the first gas pipeline,” the MP said. “This line is also designed for the enterprises that will be created in the city.”
“In his speech, the president outlined the plans for Sumgayit’s future development,” Hajiyev said.
The president reviewed the conducted work and said that “we must transform Sumgayit into a more modern city and, I am sure, we will achieve that," he added.
“The state concept on Sumgayit’s development covers three spheres: firstly, to increase the industrial potential of the city, that is, to create new enterprises, thereby continuing to diversify the economy; secondly, to solve the problems of employment of the city residents by creating new jobs; and finally, to modernize the city’s infrastructure,” the MP said.
“Along with meeting local needs, the polymer and carbamide plants built in Sumgayit recently also play an important role in export,” Hajiyev said. “The Sumgayit Chemical Industrial Park, Sumgayit Technological Park and other complexes are also aimd to solve the employment problem.”
The president said that "we have a comprehensive approach to the development of the city. Growth of the city’s industrial potential will be maintained in the future, too. Therefore, the commissioning of the second gas line meets today's needs and also takes into account the potential of the enterprises that will be built here in the future," Hajiyev added.
“This means that Sumgayit, as an industrial city, will strengthen its leading position in the region, and thereby will make an indispensable contribution to Azerbaijan’s export of non-oil products."
“There were no problems in Sumgayit’s gas supply and the city was fully provided with gas,” Hajiyev said. “However, sometimes the pressure was low in some places and this issue was raised by voters during the meetings.”
“Putting the gas pipeline into operation will certainly solve this problem,” the MP said. “In general, the primary infrastructure issues are solved in Sumgayit city. Sumgayit is a beautiful city thanks to the reconstructed Sumgayit boulevard, new administrative buildings, parks, alleys. The roofs of 1,100 buildings were renovated in the city. After the renovation of the roofs of 190 buildings this year, the process will be successfully completed.”
“Elevators, roads, asphalt surface have been renovated,” Hajiyev said. “The transport infrastructure of the city has been completely upgraded. New buses are used. Currently, it is expected to begin to implement a cashless payment system in public transport. This will increase transparency, as well as discipline in the use of transport.”
Touching upon the issues related to the infrastructure innovations, the MP stressed that due to the population growth, the opening of new enterprises and jobs makes it necessary to bring Sumgayit's infrastructure in line with this growing demands.
“There are two issues that the residents of Sumgayit are looking forward to solving,” the MP said. “The first issue is connected with the Aji Dere channel, which starts from Jeyranbatan water storage basin and passes through Sumgayit. The channel is open in a certain area and sewage continues to be drained into it in some places. It is true that a part of this channel was included in the pipeline, but the process was not completed. I hope that in the future investment programs will cover this project as well and the problem will be solved.”
“The second issue is related to the household waste processing plant,” Hajiyev said. “In particular, the plant must meet the requirements of the most modern technologies and generate thermal power and electric power. For example, in Sweden, waste processing enterprises ensure about 16 percent of the country's needs for thermal power and about two percent for electric power. This practice is used in most developed countries. It would be great if such a plant is constructed in Sumgayit."