BAKU, Azerbaijan, June 1
By Fidan Babayeva - Trend:
The restoration and development of Azerbaijan’s liberated territories will become one of the drivers for the creation of jobs and industries in the non-oil sector, Deputy Director of the International Institute for Energy Policy and Diplomacy of the Moscow State Institute of International Relations, expert of the Institute’s Center for Sustainable Development Igbal Guliyev told Trend.
According to Guliyev, restoration and development can bring up to 20 percent of Azerbaijan’s GDP in the future.
He said that the territory of Karabakh (covering the liberated areas) is quite advantageous in economic terms: the mining industry and a developed agro-industrial complex, including processing, alone are capable of ensuring the development of the region.
Large-scale projects for the development of transport infrastructure - the international airport in Fuzuli and new highways - will allow the country’s districts to serve large flows of goods and provide logistics interchanges, as well as develop tourism, the expert noted.
"It’s already clear now that active development will soon turn the liberated Azerbaijani territories into a driver of economic development for the entire country," he further said. "Moreover, these areas will not only be restored and brought in line with the socio-economic development of the entire country but will also become ‘prioritized development areas."
"At the same time, the restoration work will be carried out taking into account the concepts of ‘smart village’, ‘smart city’ and modern models of agglomeration management. For the international community, these works will become a model for the restoration of territories in the post-conflict period," emphasized Guliyev.
Azerbaijan liberated its territories from Armenian occupation as a result of the Second Karabakh war (from late Sept. to early Nov.2020).
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