BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 26
Trend:
Azerbaijan is ready for new technologies and innovations, said Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev during the videoconference with Chief Executive Officer of Signify (formerly Philips Lighting) Eric Rondolat, General Manager for the CIS Eric Benedetti and other executives of Signify, Trend reports.
“I remember our meeting in Davos. I am told that we have made good progress since then. Despite the fact that the situation associated with coronavirus somewhat interfered with our plans, I am told that everything we discussed and agreed on is currently being implemented,” said President Ilham Aliyev.
Touching upon the installation of LED lamps in Baku, thanks to which a large amount of energy will be saved, the head of state said he is glad that everything is on schedule.
“I have been informed that after the meeting in Davos, your team visited us in March. As you noted, the first stage will already be implemented before the end of September. It includes thousands of new street lighting lamps in Baku. This will primarily cover the areas with poor street lighting. At the same time, as you noted, we will save a lot of energy, which will benefit our people. As we discussed, after this first project we have major plans on expanding our joint activities and covering Baku and other cities. At the initial stage, we may cover large cities. We talked about street lighting in Sumgayit. As far as I know, the evaluation process is now underway. So I hope we will have long-term cooperation in this area,” said President Ilham Aliyev.
Speaking about establishing lighting systems by Signify for ensuring road safety in Baku, the head of state said he is aware that the company has already implemented several projects in Azerbaijan together with the public and private sectors.
“However, the project we discussed in Davos and are jointly implementing now is, of course, the largest project. As we discussed earlier, it has great potential for the future because this is the first experience. I am sure that this will be a very successful experience and municipal authorities and city governments will benefit from this in the future. It has been noted that we will save a large amount of energy and fuel produced for other purposes, of exports and improve the life of the city,” said President Ilham Aliyev.
Touching upon the serious measures taken in Azerbaijan in the fight against the pandemic, the head of state noted that the virus has affected all countries.
“It is clear that it will not disappear and we will have to live with the virus. Therefore, I believe that these precautions, of course, have entered our lives for a long time. For this reason, we need modern preventive tools that would meet the most complex technological requirements. We are doing our best to protect our citizens. From the very beginning, we took very important preventive measures, which allowed us the opportunity to protect our citizens and find a way out of this situation with minimal losses. Our efforts were also acknowledged by the World Health Organization, which has described Azerbaijan as an exemplary country in the fight against coronavirus. Of course, I fully support your technology initiative to assist in the self-defense of humanity,” said President Ilham Aliyev.
The meeting participants also touched upon the issues of cooperation in the field of a significant increase in agricultural productivity, including the field of livestock breeding, poultry and agriculture, the production of environmentally friendly agricultural products, reduction of water consumption, application of modern technologies to the field of agriculture and the training of young personnel.
The head of state noted that thanks to the reforms carried out in this field, we see that more and more young people want to become agricultural specialists, and the number of young people choosing this profession at the Agrarian University is growing.
“We are applying a new e-agriculture system. This helps us a lot in increasing the effectiveness of an important area of our life and economy, because it is possible to say that 50 percent of our population lives in rural areas. Therefore, I am sure that this will become a very important new project we can jointly implement. In general, Azerbaijan is ready for new technologies and innovations. We have already created a powerful human capital for this, and our technologies related to state and social services are now being used by a number of other countries. Therefore, we are absolutely open to new technologies, as they lead to new prospects, dynamism, progress, jobs and welfare,” said President Ilham Aliyev.
The head of state pointed out that he highly values the personal relations with Chief Executive Officer of Signify, saying that they are focused on the result.
“I believe that your modern technologies aimed at improving people's lives, strengthening the economy, saving resources and obtaining better results in agriculture make a good unity with our country’s desire to become one of the leaders in the application of these technologies. I know that your company is one of the global leaders in this area. Therefore, the more new technologies you invent, the more opportunities there will be for our cooperation. Thank you for that. I look forward to seeing in person soon,” said President Ilham Aliyev.