Today business climate in Azerbaijan is one of the most advanced in the world, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said.
President Aliyev made the remarks at the Second Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation in Beijing on April 26.
“The creation of modern transportation infrastructure is one of the priorities of Azerbaijan,” the president said. “Using our geographical location we invest in building bridges between Asia and Europe. Despite being a landlocked country we transformed Azerbaijan into one of the international transportation hubs. We have built diversified railroad network connecting us with our neighbours.”
“Some 15,000 km of roads and highways were built in Azerbaijan during the last 15 years,” the president said. “According to the assessment of the Davos World Economic Forum Azerbaijan is ranked number 34 with respect to the quality of growth.”
“Development of infrastructure is also supported by creation of a very friendly business climate and as I said we have 260 billion of investments half of them are foreign investments and today business climate in Azerbaijan is one of the most advanced in the world,” he said. “According to the latest report of the World Bank’s Doing Business report Azerbaijan is number 25th with respect to business climate and during one year we increased our position dramatically. Azerbaijan is now among the ten most reformist countries in the world.”
“Talking about the transportation infrastructure, I want to note investments in the air transportation,” the president said. “Six international airports is our another contribution to modern transportation infrastructure. Baku Heydar Aliyev International Airport has been awarded with Five Star regional airport rating by International Air transport Rating Organization SKYTRAX. Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railroad inaugurated in 2017, is not only a regional project connecting three countries, it is a project which connects continents.”
“It is an important link between Asia and Europe and this railroad is important part of East-West transportation corridor,” he said. “It took us a lot of time together with our partners to complete the construction of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railroad and today this railroad plays very important role in transportation in Eurasia.”
“Azerbaijan also invested in another important transportation project North-South transportation corridor and the countries situated on East-East and North-South transportation corridors use a territory of Azerbaijan in order to transport their goods,” the president said. “Therefore, our investments in modern transportation infrastructure helps not only to increase our economic potential and to provide services for our friends, partners and neighbors, but also creates a unique opportunity for trade, tourism, transportation and it unites them all, unites countries, the countries become interdependent and this serves to the purpose of peace and stability.”
“Thus, Azerbaijan became an important transit country with developed transportation infrastructure,” the president said. “After the inauguration of Lapis Lazuli last year it was connected to Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway increasing the transit potential of Azerbaijan. Today Azerbaijan provides transit opportunities for a growing number of countries. Azerbaijan has a largest fleet of 260 ships in the Caspian Sea. There is also a shipyard in Azerbaijan built relatively recently capable of producing all types of vessels.”
“Last year we inaugurated the new International Sea port of Baku capable to transport 15 million tons of cargos and 100,000 containers,” he said. “In the future the transportation capability of the port will grow up to 25 million tons of cargos, including 1 million containers.”
“By creating modern transportation logistic infrastructure we not only transform our country into important transportation hub but also contributed to the cooperation with countries involved in East-West and North-South Corridors,” the president said. “International transportation projects strengthen the cooperation between countries and peoples. The Belt and Road initiative not only create the opportunities in transportation but enhances trade, tourism, people-to-people contacts, serve the cause of stability and security and peace in Eurasia.”
