Ilham Aliyev: Karabakh region will become driving force of Azerbaijani economy

The liberated territories of Azerbaijan have great potential, and the Karabakh region will become the driving force of the country's economy, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said at the opening of the First Azerbaijan National Urban Forum in Aghdam, Report informs.

The President of Azerbaijan noted that the liberated territories have a significant potential for renewable energy, which, according to preliminary estimates, amounts to almost 10,000 MW.

"We fully restock the electric supply to all the liberated areas and hopefully soon in Jabrayil, we will start the construction of the solar power plant with a capacity of 230 megawatts. In general, we have evaluated the potential of renewable energy in the liberated territories and preliminary analyses show almost 10,000 megawatts. We have already inaugurated several hydropower stations and a total capacity of hydropower will be more than 500 megawatts and the rest will be solar and wind," the head of state said.

"This area will not only accumulate its people who had to live in different parts of Azerbaijan during the years of occupation but at the same time will be a driving force for Azerbaijan's economy in the future. We have huge water resources here which we have been deprived of during the times of occupation because Armenians did not only occupy our cities, they occupied our resources. There have been illegal mining, illegal activity of cutting us from water, and we were not able to irrigate hundred thousand hectares of land. Now we are back to our rivers; we are back to our soil," he added.