The liberated territories of Karabakh may offer new opportunities for Malaysian renewable energy companies, Deputy Foreign Minister of Azerbaijan Elnur Mammadov, who arrived in Malaysia to participate in political consultations, said.
Report informs, citing Malaysian media, that, according to Mammadov, Azerbaijan receives 17% of its energy from renewable sources and plans to increase this figure to 30% by 2030. In addition, the Karabakh region can generate more than 10,000 megawatts (MW) of renewable energy, including about 7,000 MW of solar power and 2,000 MW of wind power. In addition, offshore winds from the Caspian Sea can generate up to 157 gigawatts of renewable energy.
"Since Malaysia has similar ambitions to develop renewable energy, the liberated territories of Karabakh can offer new opportunities for your country's companies," he told local media during a meeting at the Azerbaijani embassy in Malaysia.
Speaking about the restoration work in Karabakh, the deputy minister noted that last year Azerbaijan spent $1.3 billion on this, and this year allocated another $1.5 billion.
"Malaysia and Azerbaijan, in the spirit of the ummah, will also carry out joint projects for the reconstruction of mosques in the Karabakh region," he said, adding that agriculture is another potential area of cooperation between both countries, given that the region has good opportunities for growing crops. .
Speaking about the potential in the transport sector, he noted that "Azerbaijan is at the center of two main trade routes, namely the North-South Transport Corridor, which starts from Finland and ends in India, and the East-West project, which connects China with Europe through Caspian Sea."
Also, Malaysia, he said, will benefit from a new transport corridor that will serve as an alternative trade route to the Suez Canal. Thus, at the end of the Second Karabakh War, Armenia agreed to build a new transport corridor that would connect Azerbaijan with Armenia, the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic, and, ultimately, with Turkiye.
The deputy minister added that Malaysia has extensive trade relations with the European Union (EU) and mainly uses the Suez Canal to transport goods to Europe. However, the Suez Canal has some weak sides, "as we saw during the Ever Given ship blocking incident last year."
"Azerbaijan's new transport corridor will certainly benefit Malaysia and other countries with east-west trade links," he said, noting that, for its part, Azerbaijan has built 60 km of the 120 km of railways and roads that connect the country with Armenia for the corridor, and the rest of the work will be completed by the end of 2023.
"Unfortunately, Armenia has not yet begun work on this, although the corridor will be of great benefit to this landlocked country," he said.