Azernews.Az

By Vafa Ismayilova

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and World Economic Forum President Borge Brende have discussed bilateral cooperation, Karabakh’s rehabilitation and the fight against COVID-19, Azertag reported on April 28.

At the video format meeting held at Brende’s initiative, the sides underlined the long-term fruitful cooperation between Azerbaijan and the World Economic Forum and the country’s close involvement in a number of initiatives of the Forum as part of this cooperation. They emphasized that Azerbaijan and the World Economic Forum were successfully cooperating in the development of the country's non-oil sector.

President Aliyev informed Borge Brende of the infrastructure projects and the attraction of investments to Azerbaijan's liberated territories. The head of state said that the reconstruction was underway in those territories and that there was tremendous work to be done as a large area would be completely rebuilt. It was noted that the efforts would mainly focus on the reconstruction of the territories, which will also give an impetus to the development of the economy's non-energy sector, especially construction.

Aliyev stressed that the foundation of the villages to be reconstructed on the basis of the "smart village" concept was laid two days ago. He said that he had announced the liberated territories as a “green zone”. The president noted that the "smart city" and "smart village" concept will be used in those areas, adding that master plans have been prepared for cities, infrastructure projects related to production, electricity, highways, railways and airports were being implemented and touched upon prospects for cooperation with the World Economic Forum in this field.

During the conversation, the sides discussed the measures taken to combat the pandemic in Azerbaijan and praised the increase in the number of people recovering from the disease in the country in recent days. It was noted that vaccination had been launched in Azerbaijan, that 14 percent of the population has already been vaccinated and that very important and global pandemic-related measures have been taken at the country's initiative. It was also underlined that Azerbaijan has provided humanitarian and financial assistance to more than 30 countries and that one of the issues raised by Azerbaijan at the national level and as the chair of the Non-Aligned Movement is related to the fair distribution of vaccines in the world.

The sides highlighted the activities of the affiliated Azerbaijan Centre of the World Economic Forum's Network of the Fourth Industrial Revolution Centres. Aliyev expressed his gratitude for the establishment of the first such centre in the CIS region in Baku, underscoring the role of the centre in terms of diversifying the economy and continuing reforms, as well as attracting investment. It was mentioned that the Centre had been founded in Davos in 2020 with the signing of a letter of intent by President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev and World Economic Forum President Borge Brende. Close cooperation with the World Economic Forum has already been established to organize the activities of the centre. At the initial stage, an analysis of artificial intelligence and the digital economy is being conducted.

President Aliyev invited Brende to visit Azerbaijan to get acquainted with the centre’s activities.

Aliyev spoke about great attention to the training of the younger generation and said that a new generation of educated people had grown up in recent years. He thanked Brende for the opportunity for the Azerbaijani youth to participate in the World Economic Forum initiatives and programs as practitioners.

Pointing out a good environment in Azerbaijan for the attraction of investment, Brende described the Azerbaijani youth as exemplary and expressed his confidence that they would contribute to the diversification of the Azerbaijani economy.

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