Baku, April 28, AZERTAC

On the initiative of the President of the World Economic Forum, President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev has met with the Forum’s President Borge Brende in the format of a video conference.

According to AZERTAC, President of the World Economic Forum Borge Brende extended greetings of the Forum's Founder and Executive Chairman, Klaus Schwab, to the head of state.

President Ilham Aliyev thanked for the greetings from Klaus Schwab and asked Borge Brende to convey his greetings to the founder and executive chairman of the World Economic Forum.

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 was underlined at the meeting. The sides emphasized that Azerbaijan and the World Economic Forum were successfully cooperating in the development of the non-oil sector in the country.

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

Emphasizing that the foundation of the villages to be reconstructed on the basis of the "smart village" concept was laid two days ago, the head of state said that he announced the liberated territories as a “green zone”. He 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 measures have been taken at the initiative of the country in connection with the pandemic. 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 Center of the World Economic Forum's Network of the Fourth Industrial Revolution Centers. The head of state expressed his gratitude for the establishment of the first such center in the CIS region in Baku, underscoring the role of the center in terms of diversifying the economy and continuing reforms, as well as attracting investment. It was mentioned that the Center had been founded in Davos in 2020 with the signing of a letter of intent by President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev and President of the World Economic Forum Borge Brende. Close cooperation with the World Economic Forum has already been established to organize the activities of the center. At the initial stage, analysis of artificial intelligence and the digital economy is being conducted.

President Ilham Aliyev invited Borge Brende to visit Azerbaijan to get acquainted with the activities of the center.

Saying that great attention was being paid to the training of the younger generation and that a new generation of educated people had grown up in recent years, President Ilham Aliyev thanked Borge Brende for the opportunity for Azerbaijani youth to participate in the initiatives and programs of the World Economic Forum as practitioners.

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