EU standards to be applied in Azerbaijan’s construction sector
By Nigar Orujova
European standards will be used while carrying out supervision of construction safety in Azerbaijan.
A memorandum of cooperation was signed between the German Institute for Building Technology and the State Agency for Construction Safety Supervision, operating under the Azerbaijan Emergency Situations Ministry, in Baku on December 11.
The signing ceremony was held in the framework of the conference on EU twinning project “Support to the State Agency for Control over Construction Safety within the MES in the field of transition to EU construction standards”.
Addressing the event, EU Ambassador to Azerbaijan Malena Mard said that Azerbaijan has seen a construction boom in recent years.
“This raises a number of challenges. The project was launched at the initiative of the State Agency for Construction Safety Supervision to eliminate these challanges. Firstly, the project involved improvement of the legislation to bring it up to European standards,” Mard said.
She noted that the project has contributed to the emergence of new opportunities for cooperation in the construction industry with the state bodies of Azerbaijan.
Deputy Minister of Emergency Situations Rahim Latifov, in turn, noted that this project has played an important role in the improvement of the potential of administrative structures of the state agency, and helped to identify gaps and solve problems with the supervision over the safety in construction sector.
The total cost of the twinning project is 900,000 euros, and implementation period covers 19 months.
The construction market in Azerbaijan is now going through changes after recent economic shocks – a fall in oil prices, the devaluation of manat, etc. The overall standstill in the market continues as real estate prices fluctuate.
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Nigar Orujova is AzerNews’s staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @o_nigar
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