BAKU, Azerbaijan, Sept. 14
By Samir Ali – Trend:
Today, the President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev has stressed the need to expand the activity of the Sumgayit Chemical Industrial Park, Azerbaijani Minister of Economy, Mikayil Jabbarov said.
Jabbarov was commenting on the opening ceremony of the Vocational Education Center at the Sumgayit Chemical Industrial Park with the participation of President Aliyev, Trend reports on Sept. 14.
The minister stressed that only 65 hectares are free on the territory of the park covering an area of over 500 hectares.
"There is a great interest in this territory,” the minister added. “I am sure that the appeal made today by the Azerbaijani president to entrepreneurs and foreign investors operating in the country, living abroad, will have a bigger effect."
The building of the Vocational Education Center is intended to train 500 students. It consists of six buildings, in which there are 23 classrooms, 13 laboratories, an assembly hall for 154 people, a canteen for 184 people, a library, a computer room, a sports hall, and 24 administrative offices.
Currently, the Vocational Education Center accepts students for the 2020-2021 academic year in the following specialties, namely, lathe/milling machine operators, programmed machine operators, electrical equipment maintenance and repair electricians, industrial installation workmasters, web designers, and software specialists.
The center's curriculum has been prepared to take into account international practice. The specialists of the residents of the Sumgayit Chemical Industrial Park have been involved in the training process.
Some 80 percent of classes in special disciplines will be conducted with students at the enterprises of the Sumgayit Chemical Industrial Park.
Moreover, the stands with training equipment were installed in the center for organizing the practical training.
Industrialization is an important component of President Aliyev’s economic policy. The main goal is to expand the share of local products in meeting the demand, increase the export potential, and further reduce the dependence on the oil and gas factor in general.
The Sumgayit Chemical Industrial Park can be cited as an example of the success of this strategy. The statistics reflect real figures. So, the products worth 258 million manats ($151 million) were produced there in the first half of 2019, then for the corresponding period of 2020 - twice as much - worth 534 million manats ($314 million).
The export volume increased by 1.5 times compared to the first six months of 2019 (121 million manats that’s 71 million) and amounted to 182 million manats ($107 million) in the first half of 2020.