Azerbaijan develops program to restore liberated territories
By Ayya Lmahamad
A state program is being developed in Azerbaijan to restore the country’s territories liberated from the Armenian occupation, Finance Minister Samir Sharifov said at a Parliament’s session on December 29.
Sharifov said that work is underway with the involvement of international experts to complete the draft of a special program to calculate the damage caused to infrastructure in the liberated territories and to the people living there.
“As soon as all this is completed, financial resources and attraction of investments will be determined. Consultations with a number of international financial institutions are already being held on the instructions of the president,” he added.
“For us, the main priority in 2021 is to restore Karabakh and achieve the reintegration of it into Azerbaijan’s economy. Taking this into account, Azerbaijan is taking the necessary measures, carrying out appropriate work to attract additional financial resources,” the minister said.
Moreover, he noted that over the past five years, the share of socially-oriented expenditures in budget expenditures has increased.
The growth of socially-oriented expenditures in the state budget for 2021 amounted to 5.3 percent.
Sharifov underlined that creation of new jobs, assistance to vulnerable groups in connection with the pandemic, new loans for education, etc led to an increase in socially-oriented expenditures.
It should be noted that the Azerbaijani government will allocate AZN 2.2 billion ($1.3bn) for reconstruction works in the liberated territories in 2021. In particular, these funds will be used to restore the infrastructure (electricity, gas, water, communications, roads, education, health, etc), as well as cultural and historical monuments. In addition, Azerbaijan allocated over AZN 9 million ($5m) to compensate damages to its citizens that suffered from Armenia's aggression during the six-week war over the Nagorno-Karabakh region from September 27 to November 10.
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Ayya Lmahamad is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @AyyaLmahamad
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