Azerbaijan earmarks $1.7bn for restoration of liberated lands in 2023

By Azernews

By Ayya Lmahamad

Some AZN3 billion ($1.7bn) are provided from the state budget for the restoration of Azerbaijan's liberated lands in 2023, Azernews reports.

The restoration of the country's liberated territories and ensuring the Great Return process are some of the main directions the draft law of the state budget for 2023 envisages.

Moreover, the revenues of the state budget for the next year are forecasted at AZN30.7 billion ($18bn), while expenditures are AZN33.3 billion ($19.5bn).

In 2021, Azerbaijan allocated $1.5 billion for the reconstruction of liberated territories and it was used primarily for the restoration of infrastructure (electricity, gas, water, communications, roads, education, health, and so on) as well as cultural and historical monuments.

In 2022, the state budget provided AZN2.2 billion ($1.3bn) for the reconstruction of Azerbaijan's liberated territories. Earlier, in keeping with the amendment to the said law, an additional AZN470 million ($276.4m) was proposed for the reconstruction of liberated territories in 2022.

Work is underway to restore Azerbaijan's liberated lands. Azerbaijan will rebuild its recently liberated areas in four stages. The initial stage includes the solution to the issues of governance and security, and infrastructure, while the subsequent stages include the solution to the issues of social services activities, reconstruction, and development of the economy.