PRUDENT RESTORATION

Projects focused on the earlies possible restoration of the lands liberated from the Armenian occupation are a priority not only for the government, but also for the private sector of Azerbaijan. Businesses actively join this large-scale process, doing their best to attract foreign partners.

In particular, Azerbaijan still does not have much experience in organising systems of smart management of cities and villages. This is exactly what is planned to introduce in most of the settlements of Garabagh and Eastern Zangezur. Therefore, the government and the business community will get the support of colleagues from Russia, whose experience in the development of ‘smart’ urban infrastructure was recently presented during the business visit of Russian companies to Azerbaijan.

Trade leader

Russia confidently holds leading positions in the list of Azerbaijan's trade partners in the non-oil sector. According to the results of the first three quarters of this year, Russia was the most active importer of non-oil products from Azerbaijan (32.4% of total exports). It’s expected that the volume of the Azerbaijani-Russian trade turnover by the end of 2021 will reach about $3 billion. According to the Ambassador of the Russian Federation to Azerbaijan Mikhail Bocharnikov, this means that the countries have already reached the pre-pandemic level of 2019. “This opens up quite broad opportunities for further cooperation. Now it is important to increase Azerbaijan’s export of agricultural products to Russia. In the last six months, railway transport has been actively involved in the supply of these products from Azerbaijan to Russia. Our transport systems are getting increasingly diversified, with new opportunities opening up for the implementation in the recently created economic regions of East Zangezur and Garabagh,” Mr. Bocharnikov said.

General Director of the Russian Export Center (REC), Veronika Nikishina, also believes that there is potential for increasing trade and economic relations between the countries. REC has already received proposals for investment projects in Azerbaijan and is currently looking for Russian companies interested in them.

"By the end of 2022-2023, we plan to increase the volume of trade turnover between our countries to $5 billion," said about their ambitious plans Mr. Azer Talibov, Chairman of the Board of Roseximbank JSC. According to him, it is necessary to solve several problems, including the creation of a favourable environment for doing business both in Azerbaijan and Russia. “In addition, it is necessary to remove administrative barriers and bureaucratic difficulties,” said Mr. Talibov.

The chairman of the Azerbaijani-Russian Business Council, Samed Gurbanov, encouraged Russian businesses to get actively involved in the projects proposed by Azerbaijan to implement during the restoration of the liberated lands.

As pointed out by the Deputy Minister of Economy of Azerbaijan, Elnur Aydinov, these projects are currently a priority for the country. There is a project ready to support investments in the liberated territories of Azerbaijan and it reflects all the nuances associated with investments in this region. At the same time, the government has developed the necessary tools to support foreign investors.

Azerbaijan’s Ministry of Digital Development and Transport has been instructed to develop the concept for the Smart City and Smart Village projects; Russian companies are expected to be actively involved in both projects.

Russian experience

According to the analytical agency IDC, global spending on the development of ‘smart cities’ by 2023 will reach $189.5 billion. These projects are implemented in almost all developed countries of the world. Why does Azerbaijan attract Russian experience in this area? First, for many years the management of urban economies in our countries have followed the same principle. Therefore, the issues related to the digital restructuring of those cities also have similar features. On the other hand, Russians have implemented the concept for several years and in several large settlements at once. It is no surprise that they have sufficient experience. Through trial and error, it is possible to develop the necessary algorithms for planning the digitalisation of urban economy and infrastructure. In general, a Smart City is an urban environment with a feedback system, which provides the most complete, prompt, and reliable collection of information about all factors that somehow affect the life of citizens. It is not only about a multifunctional system of electronic sensors, but also about technologies that make it possible to take into account the opinion of citizens of certain processes of their life in a Smart City. Based on this information, the city authorities develop a plan of further actions to solve problems that negatively affect the comfort of citizens.

In fact, there are a lot of nuances. For example, in Novosibirsk, Russia, authorities have introduced a project to equip parks with Wi-Fi access points, as well as charging facilities for smartphones, notebooks or electric scooters with voice notification. Smart stops, traffic lights, crossroads with the regulated flow of cars… this is no longer a fantasy, but real projects implemented in this Siberian city. Certainly, the goal of all of these projects is to ensure maximum compliance with environmental requirements and reduction of atmospheric emissions. For example, encouraging the growth of the number of electric vehicles in the city, installing a large number of filling stations for them, etc.

By and large, this was the main reason why the Azerbaijani authorities decided to implement the expensive concept of smart cities and villages on the liberated lands. Thanks to solutions to preserve the environmental balance as much as possible, it will be possible to protect the unique biodiversity of the region. After all, it is extremely important for us all to try to restore not only destroyed houses and enterprises, but also the rich nature of Garabagh, to rehabilitate its original splendour and beauty.