Azernews.Az

By Vugar Khalilov

A mission consisting of experts from the United Nations, the European Union and the World Bank has arrived in Azerbaijan to assess the needs of restoration and reconstruction in liberated territories.

The assessment of the reconstruction activities in Azerbaijan’s liberated lands will be carried out in line with the Methodology for Recovery and Peacebuilding Assessment (RPBA), the report added.

The mission is expected to visit Azerbaijan’s liberated Aghdam, Fuzuli and Jabrayil regions to familiarize themselves with the reconstruction work, as well as to get informed about the needs.

As a part of their visit, the delegation met with the leadership of the Interdepartmental Center of the Coordination Headquarters established for the centralized settlement of issues in Azerbaijan’s liberated territories and the heads of working groups operating under the Center.

Addressing the event, Deputy Head of the Foreign Policy Department of Azerbaijani Presidential Administration, Head of the Secretariat of the Interdepartmental Center Nusrat Suleymanov informed the guests about the activities of the Coordination Headquarters.

He stressed the importance of the existing interagency coordination mechanism within the Headquarters in the implementation of restoration and construction work in the liberated territories.

Emin Huseynov, Azerbaijan's special representative in the liberated territories of the Karabakh economic region (except Shusha), emphasized the significance of the expert mission, noting that the delegation would become acquainted with the work being done in the region during their visit.

The heads of the Interdepartmental Center's working groups then briefed the visitors on the demining of liberated territories, the preparation of the General Plan, Master Plans for cities, communication, the creation of transport infrastructure, sustainable economic development, energy supply, the ecological situation, and reforestation activities. The current state and restoration of historical and cultural monuments, as well as work done to return the population to the territories, were all discussed.

Following that, the guests were given statistics on the work done in the liberated territories, and the parties exchanged expert opinions on the relevant issues.

As a result of the visit, the expert mission will prepare a preliminary report.

Currently, the work is underway to restore Azerbaijan's liberated lands. Azerbaijan will rebuild its recently liberated areas in four stages. The initial stage includes the solution of the issues of governance and security, infrastructure, while the subsequent stages include the solution of the issues of social services activities, reconstruction, and development of the economy.

In 2021, Azerbaijan allocated $1.5 billion for the reconstruction of liberated territories, followed by AZN 2.2 billion ($1.2 billion) in 2022. These funds will be used primarily to restore infrastructure (electricity, gas, water, communications, roads, education, health, and so on) as well as cultural and historical monuments.

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