BAKU, Azerbaijan, Feb. 7
Trend:
Important steps will be taken this year in relation to social infrastructure, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said in his closing speech at the conference dedicated to the results of first year implementation of "The State Program on socio-economic development of the regions of the Republic of Azerbaijan in 2019-2023", Trend reports.
“Important steps will be taken this year in relation to social infrastructure,” Ilham Aliyev said. “Dozens of schools and medical facilities will be built and renovated. The opening of two Olympic sports centers is planned on. Five “ASAN xidmət” centers will be commissioned this year, and thus their number will reach 21. But, of course, this process continues. I must inform you that five centers will be commissioned this year, the opening of six more is on the agenda. Two of them will be built in Baku, so the number of centers in Baku will reach seven, because people are queuing up in some centers.”
“One will be built in Ganja,” the Azerbaijani president noted. “It will be the second center in Ganja. One will be built in Sumgayit, and it will also be a second one. One will be built in Lankaran and one in Salyan. This program should be completed no later than the end of 2021, perhaps even earlier. So the number of “ASAN xidmət” centers will reach 27.”
“The establishment of “DOST” centers will receive a further impetus,” Ilham Aliyev added. “Two centers were commissioned last year. In general, there are plans to create more than 30 “DOST” centers.”
“Another social project is related to apartments that will be built for martyr families,” said the Azerbaijani president. “Last year, apartments were provided to 934 martyr families. This year I asked to increase this figure, so the state will provide at least 1,500 martyr families with beautiful houses and apartments.”
“With regard to the living conditions of internally displaced persons, this will be another record year in this matter,” Ilham Aliyev noted. “This year we plan to provide apartments and houses to 7,000 IDP families. Last year, this figure was 5,000. So about 30,000-40,000 IDPs will be provided with new homes.”
“Other social projects include the introduction of paid public jobs,” the Azerbaijani president said. “This issue was put forward on my initiative when unemployment in our country increased slightly. The reason was that oil prices dropped fourfold, and we were forced to cut down on investment. In my opening remarks, I already said that we managed to increase foreign exchange reserves even in the most difficult years for us. However, we reduced investment, so those who were expected to participate in these projects were left without work. Therefore, on my instruction, paid public jobs were created. But, unfortunately, violations were committed in this area in the regions and those who committed them were punished.”
“If these shameful facts are repeated, no-one will escape punishment because it is absolutely disgraceful to embezzle the money intended for job creation for the poor,” Ilham Aliyev noted. “Therefore, strict control is in place. I am sure that such cases will not recur. But still there must be strict control. The Ministry of Labor and Social Protection of the Population has been tasked with registering all jobs and exercising strict control. The situation with unemployment last year improved significantly again. But the population is growing. We must take this into account. Therefore, this year about 40,000 jobs will also be created by the state.”
“Another important program is the one on self-employment,” said the Azerbaijani president. “We launched it a few years ago, and there is a great need for that. This shows that it was the right step, and we are now expanding this program. The need is for about 40,000-50,000. Last year, we involved 7,000-8,000 people in the program. At least 10,000 people will be involved this year. The necessary funds, equipment and livestock will be provided. On our initiative, we are implementing this program together with the World Bank. So the funds for these 10,000 jobs that will be created are also provided by the World Bank.”
“We need their experience and expertise more than the funding, because the World Bank has implemented such projects in many countries of the world,” Ilham Aliyev noted. “Therefore, both expertise and additional financial resources will be attracted. I would also like to appeal to private banks operating in Azerbaijan to join this program too, so that it gets wider. As I have already noted, there is a great interest and the needs are growing.”