BAKU, Azerbaijan, June 10
By Fidan Babayeva - Trend:
Azerbaijan is pursuing a competent economic policy aimed at moving away from the raw material orientation of the national economy towards the development of the non-oil sector, Deputy Director of the International Institute for Energy Policy and Diplomacy of the Moscow State Institute of International Relations, an expert of the Institute’s Sustainable Development Center Igbal Guliyev told Trend.
According to Guliyev, the current economic policy pursued by Azerbaijan is also aimed at the development of high-tech industries, modernization of the industrial sector as a whole, improving the welfare of the population, and growing competitiveness of domestic products.
He said ensuring the sustainable development of Azerbaijan is directly related to the growth of industrial production, technological renewal of basic production assets, the introduction of high technologies.
“It is already obvious that with the liberation of Azerbaijani territories from Armenian occupation, active development of seven districts will soon make it possible to turn Karabakh into a driver of economic development for the entire country. 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 ‘territories of advanced development," said Guliyev.
“At the same time, 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 activities will become a model for the restoration of territories in the post-conflict period,” he emphasized.
Guliyev also noted that the restoration and development of Azerbaijan’s liberated lands will contribute to the creation of a large number of jobs and industries in the non-oil sector, which in the future will be able to bring up to 20 percent of Azerbaijan's GDP.
As the expert said, the territory of Karabakh is quite advantageous from an economic point of view: the mining industry and a developed agro-industrial complex, including processing, are intrinsically 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 districts to serve large flows of goods and provide logistics interchanges, as well as develop tourism,” Guliyev added.