Azerbaijan unveils plan for restoring liberated territories

By Azernews

By Ayya Lmahamad

Azerbaijan will carry out restoration and reconstruction work in its recently-liberated territories in four stages, Economy Minister Mikayil Jabbarov has said.

“The initial stage includes the solution of the issues of governance and security, infrastructure, while the subsequent stages include the solution of the issues of social services activities, reconstruction and development of the economy,” the minister said while addressing the government session to sum up the results of 2020.

The minister said that the concept for the reconstruction and development of liberated land has already been prepared, noting that the measures to be taken will create the ground for attracting new local and foreign investment to the country, especially in the non-oil sector.

Moreover, Jabbarov underlined that according to the president’s instructions, and taking into account the natural resources, traditional economic spheres of each region, proximity to transport hubs, including restored transport corridors, roads and railways, the profile and specialization of each economic region are provided.

Meanwhile, it was noted that in the course of increasing the efficiency of investments during the implementation of these works, it is proposed to widely use the public-private partnership in the restoration of transport and utility infrastructure, construction of traditional and alternative irrigation, melioration and energy systems and implementation of investment projects in other areas.

Touching upon the planning of country’s macroeconomic indicators for 2021, the minister emphasized that the broad restoration work on liberated territories plays the role of one of the drivers of active growth in country’s non-oil sector and the economy as a whole.

“This can be explained by the fact that our forecasts for the Azerbaijan economy for 2021 are more optimistic compared to those of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. We can say that we forecast a double growth rate. If they forecast a growth rate of between 1.7 and 2 percent, we forecast a 3.4 percent economic growth rate based on the adopted parameters,” he underlined.

The minister also said that the damage caused as a result of the Armenian aggression is being calculated.

“Considering the future judicial compensations and the conduct of legal proceedings, we are building this work on a unified methodological basis in advance. In parallel, within the competence of local evaluation companies, state enterprises, we started this activity in all directions with the involvement of the private sector and other relevant state bodies,” Jabbarov said.