President Aliyev visits north-western regions, inaugurates new facilities
President Ilham Aliyev has paid his next regional visit to north-western regions of the country -- Balakan, Zagatala and Gakh.
The first stop of the presidential cortege was in Balakan, a region located between Georgia and Russia.
President Aliyev firstly attended the opening of Balakan Hydroelectric Power Station, the foundation of which was laid in 2010.
The maximum width of the dam of the 1.5 MW-facility located on the Balakan River, is 28 metres, while its upper part is 4 metres in width.
The power station, with a production capacity of 10 million kilowatt-hours of electricity per year, will meet 15 percent of electricity needs of the district and 25-30 percent of needs of the city of Balakan.
President Aliyev then attended the opening of the Flag Museum, which occupies the total area of 510 square metres.
Within the visit to the region, the head of state also attended the opening of Balakan-Saribulag-Gabagchol-Khalatala highway. The two-lane highway is 24.5 kilometers in length and 10 meters in width. A bridge measuring 18 meters in length and 7 meters in width was constructed over the road.
Afterwards, the President inaugurated the ABAD Center, a public legal entity.
ABAD's main goals include implementing projects that support small and medium enterprises and establishing fund to finance these projects, identifying the exact target group and creating proper conditions for use of modern technological equipment for agriculture products, assisting preparation of business plans and organization of various functional services, organizing certification of manufactured products on the basis of "one window" principle, dealing with logistics, sharing best practices, taking other measures for development of production oriented entrepreneurship.
Here President Aliyev also met with the representatives of the general public.
The second destination of the President became Zagatala region, famous for its hazelnuts and walnuts.
He familiarized himself with the activity of a tobacco processing plant of Azertutun LLC, the annual processing capacity of which in one shift is 3,300-3,600 tons.
The plant is supplied with modern equipment from the U.S., Italy and Bulgaria. In 2016, the plant processed and sold 1,039 tons of "Virginia" sorts of dry tobacco. The plant is expected to process 2300 tons of tobacco in 2017.
Later President Aliyev visited a rose oil plant of AzRose LLC, which is under construction.
The head of state was informed about the facility. The plant occupies a total area of 3 hectares. Rose oil production equipment was imported from Turkey. Azerbaijan will initially produce 125 liters of rose oil, which accounts for 4 percent of global production. The company`s products will be exported to the world market in 2018.
As part of the visit, President Aliyev also launched the 110/35/10 KV Bahmatli electrical substation.
The substation will ensure high quality supply of electricity to about 9,000 consumers of Bahramli, Suvagil, Dagli, Mosul, Yengiyan, Lahij, Kurdamir, Muganli, Gandakh, Kapanakchi, Chudulubina and Aliabad settlements.
The last destination of the regional trip of the President was Gakh, which started with inauguration of the Alatamir-Marsan-TasmaliZayam-Lalali highway.
The highway links eight settlements with the population of 7,000 people.
President Aliyev then visited Lalapasha villager Allahverdi Shirinov`s hazelnut farm in Gakh.
The farm is expected to give a harvest of more than two tons of hazelnuts this year.
Azerbaijan is the fourth largest producer of hazelnuts in the world, according to estimations of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization. The country produces around 35,000 tons of hazelnuts, with 90 percent of this exported to foreign markets. In 2016, Azerbaijan exported hazelnuts to 25 countries, generating a profit of $100 million.
The President also viewed a tobacco reception center as part of his visit to Gakh.
The head of state was informed that the facility created 90 jobs. Tobacco is cured in 60 facilities here. Local farmers give preference to Virginia sort. Around 6,500-7,000 tons of tobacco will be stored in the district this year.
In Gakh, President Aliyev also inaugurated the Gakh-Goraghan section of Gakh-Gorakhan-Zagatala highway.
The highway was built as part of the State Program on Socio-Economic Development of the Districts in 2014-2018. The construction work has been fully completed on the 8.6km section of the highway, which is 29.8km in length. The construction of reinforced concrete water transmission pipes was also completed.