Azerbaijan as a leader of the region is playing very significant role in “One Belt One Road” (OBOR) initiative, Deputy Director General of Trend News Agency Lina Vaitkeviciene told Trend.

Vaitkeviciene made the remarks as part of the video project entitled "PREZIDENT. Musteqillik. Tehlukesizlik. Rifah".

“The “One Belt One Road” initiative, first announced in 2013 by Chinese President Xi Jinping, is an extremely ambitious and far-reaching initiative with significant potential to improve the social and economic structure in Asia, Europe, and northeastern Africa, where more than half of the world’s population lives,” she said. “This win-win initiative should benefit more than 50 percent of the world’s population living in that region and contribute to political stability and peace in the world.”

Azerbaijan as a leader of the region is playing very significant role in this project, Vaitkeviciene said. “Azerbaijan is geographically located on East-West and North-South transportation corridors and its territories were used historically by Silk Road caravans. It is obvious that Silk Road related initiatives did not not leave Azerbaijan outside the plans and they will use the country’s transit potential and natural resources.”

the expert said that by taking advantage of country’s geographical location and investing mainly in infrastructure and transportation sector Azerbaijan turned into one of the international transportation hubs which connect Europe and Asia.

“The country is situated in the historic Silk Road and the creation of modern infrastructure is one of the main goals of Azerbaijan,” she said. “Azerbaijan is largely investing in infrastructure to build roads, highways, airports. East-West and North-South transportation corridors cross the country and Azerbaijan is actively participating in both of these transportation corridors and has offered a number of initiatives in this regard.”

Vaitkeviciene pointed out that Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has issued a number of decrees and given orders on construction of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway, relocation of the country’s main sea port to a Alat and the creation of the Baku International Sea Trade Port, a decree on the establishment of a free trade zone in the territory of the port, the creation of industrial zones and estates as well as IT parks in the regions of the country.

“The government of Azerbaijan does not see silk roads as a simple route or branch to be used only for transit purposes but as a focus more on its contribution to the development of the non-oil sector of the economy,” the expert said. “The long-term vision of the country's development and its exploitation of existing geographic advantages will give the country economic stability, sustainable development and prosperity for the people.”