Azerbaijan, Baku, October 17/Trend, A.Akhundov/
The activity of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) in Azerbaijan has improved the lives of millions of people, the head of the bank's Baku office Olli Norojono said.
The implementation of the programme for development of the road network in the west (Ganja-Gazakh region) and in the country's south (Masalli and Astara regions) benefited 1.2 million and 900,000 people respectively, Norojono told Trend on Thursday.
Some 2.1 million people are the immediate beneficiaries of these roads, but it should be stressed they are also used for transit purposes, that's to say they indirectly serve more people," the head of ADB's Baku Office said.
According to him, the water projects are more local in that they had a direct impact on the lives of 80,000 people in Nakhchivan, 60,000 people in Beylagan, 30,000 people in Agdash, that's to say a total of 160,000-200,000 people, but at the same time they are useful.
The project for preventing floods that operated over the whole territory of Azerbaijan covered nearly 240,000 people.
In addition according to Norojono, the project for improving the electricity transmission in Azerbaijan where it is planned to construct a double 220 kilovolt circuit power transmission line running from the Mingachevir hydroelectric power plant to the Absheron substation will have a positive impact on one third of the country's electricity generation.
"If we assume on the basis of this data, we can talk about the positive impact of the project on the lives of one third of the country's population" he said.
Azerbaijan has been a member of the ADB since December 1999. The ADB was established in 1966 and has 67 members. The headquarters of the bank is located in the capital of the Philippines, Manila. The country's participating share in the bank's capital is 0.5 per cent.