Azerbaijan Road Project - Photo Essay

Azerbaijan

Photo Essays

Azerbaijan Road Project

Located along the historic Silk Road, Azerbaijan plays an important role in regional trade between Asia and Europe. The rapid growth of Azerbaijan’s oil and gas sector highlights the country’s critical role in international transit and trade, especially in transporting oil and oil products from the Caspian Sea to the Mediterranean, Europe and beyond.

In line with the the government's poverty reduction strategy, ADB is helping improve the country's road and transport infrastructure through various technical assistance and lending programs.

ADB’s technical assistance is helping to develop a long-term transport sector strategy that identifies priorities and resources for the development of sector.	The strategy will guide Government policies and investments in the transport sector.	Civil aviation, railways, roads, maritime transport, ports and harbors, oil pipeline, and urban transport are covered in the strategy.
Road maintenance is constrained by lack of funds and institutional weaknesses and inefficiencies.	ADB’s East –West Road Improvement Project will improve 127 km of two-lane paved road on the Yevlakh-Ganja and Qazakh-Georgian border sections of the highway, as well as 65 km of connecting local roads.	The project aims to expand traffic, trade and investment in the project areas, create new jobs and income opportunities, and improve access to markets and social services.
The project will conduct a road safety program to address the increasing number of road accidents as well the lack of safety features and facilities.	ADB assistance is not simply financing, but a source of knowledge to support an ambitious program of policy and structural reforms, to design good projects based on international best practice, and bring better transparency and efficiency to project implementation.	Almost 87,000 of those in the project area are internally displaced people and refugees, who are much poorer and dependent on road transport for access to basic services.

Azerbaijan Resident Mission