Azernews.Az

By Aynur Jafarova

Azerbaijani President was honored with the Caspian Statesman of the Year Award.

At the third Caspian Forum, Turkish Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Taner Yildiz handed over the award to Head of the public and political issues department of presidential administration of Azerbaijan Ali Hasanov.

President Ilham Aliyev was awarded for his leadership in transnational projects carried out in the region.

Azerbaijani Transport Minister Ziya Mammadov was awarded with the Executor of the Best Project of the Year Award.

The two-day Caspian Forum was held in Istanbul on December 4-5.

The event ended with the adoption of a declaration on the results of the forum.

The document said the Caspian region will be the centre of trade relations between East and West once again.

"Geostragetical way of Caspian Sea between East and West made it important place crossing trade, transport and transit ways, earlier called as "Silk way" . The Caspian Forum is confident that, together with the development of transport and transit infrastructures in the region, it will once again be a center of trade between East and West," the declaration said.

The forum stressed the importance of the Caspian transit corridor to diversify the region's economy, and provide a more favorable transit route for trade and investment in a vast territory from China to the UK, covering East Asia, Central Asia, the Caucasus, and Europe.

"According to the Asian Development Bank, the implementation of the Caspian transit corridor will give impetus to the a 16-17 percent growth of GDP in the region, reaching 50 percent in the seven-year period up to 2020. The Caspian Forum, which brought together representatives of political circles, will create the necessary conditions for the implementation of a future-oriented project for the Caspian transit corridor," the document said.

In addition to transport, another factor of economic independence and a tool that links different countries together and ensures the prosperity of the region is energy.

"The Caspian Forum examines the Southern Gas Corridor as the basis for this new perspective. The Corridor's potential allows it to become a major channel for the transportation of not only Caspian energy resources, but also gas from the gas fields in Eastern Mediterranean, Turkmenistan, and northern Iraq. The Forum considers transport and energy as the two main pillars for giving a new definition to the Caspian region," the document said.

The fourth Caspian Forum will be held in New-York on July 25, 2014 .

The Caspian Forum is a platform that explores the economic, political, and strategic potential of the Caspian region, and defines areas of collaboration and partnership with the spirit of the win-win principle. The theme of the Caspian Forum 2013 in Istanbul is "Defining the Caspian".

The forum considers energy and transportation, among other issues, as the two main pillars of defining the Caspian region. It will examine the region's energy resources, economic diversification, transportation projects, and security issues.

Organized by the Caspian Strategic Institute HASEN, the forum is attended by distinguished government officials, representatives from academia, businessmen, policy makers, NGOs, and media from all over the world.