Ilham Aliyev: "Karabakh region will become the driving force of Azerbaijan's economy"

"The liberated territories of Azerbaijan have great potential, and the Karabakh region will become the driving force of the country's economy."

Qazet.az reports that the President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev said this at the opening ceremony of the Azerbaijan National Urban Planning Forum in Aghdam on the theme "Sustainable Development Goals" and "New Urban Agenda" - as the leading force of recovery and reconstruction in the post-conflict period.

The head of state said that the territories liberated from occupation have significant potential in the field of renewable energy, and according to preliminary estimates, this is close to 10,000 MW: "We fully supply all territories liberated from occupation with electricity. We hope that soon the construction of a 230 MW solar power plant will begin in Jabrayl. In general, we estimated the potential of renewable energy in the liberated territories, according to preliminary data, it is about 10 thousand MW. We have already built several hydropower plants. Their total capacity will exceed 500 MW. The rest of the power plants on the ground will work with solar and wind energy.

According to President Ilham Aliyev, not only people who were forced to flee to different regions of Azerbaijan during the years of occupation will return here: "This region will also become the driving force of Azerbaijan's economy in the future. There are huge water resources in our liberated territories, we were deprived of all these during the years of occupation. Because the Armenians occupied not only our cities, but also our resources. They were engaged in illegal mining of minerals. They blocked the rivers and we could not irrigate thousands of hectares. Now we have returned our rivers and our lands."