2024-05-09 18:22:17
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is ready to participate in the Azerbaijan-EU green corridor project upon approval of its feasibility.
As Day.Az reports, ADB Director General for Central and Western Asia Evgeniy Zhukov said this, in particular, in an exclusive interview with Trend on the sidelines of the Bank’s annual meeting in Tbilisi.
The ADB CEO noted that the bank is a strong proponent of regional cooperation, as it is probably one of the few multilateral development banks (MDBs) with regional cooperation included in its charter.
“For Central Asia and the Caucasus, we established the Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation (CAREC) Program in the early 2000s. Since then, total investment in regional cooperation, including connectivity, has exceeded $50 billion.
Of course, studies continue on the Black Sea cable project, running from Azerbaijan to Georgia, from the Black Sea to Romania and the rest of the European Union. A feasibility study is currently underway. We hope to have it tentatively completed by the middle or end of this year. If the research shows that the project is feasible, we will be happy to participate. This is a very large-scale project, and if it is implemented, I think that many international financial institutions will be able to take part in it. In addition, a few days ago in Tashkent, the governments of Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan signed a preliminary memorandum of understanding on a project for a possible submarine cable crossing the Caspian Sea, from Uzbekistan to Kazakhstan and to Azerbaijan along the so-called “green” energy corridor. Uzbekistan is investing quite a lot in renewable energy production, solar and wind, in the western parts of the country, while most of the economic base is actually located in the east of Uzbekistan. We think these projects have the potential to produce green energy that can then be supplied through this proposed green corridor. But we believe that this will require large investments,” he said.
It should be noted that on December 17, 2022, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Romania and Hungary signed a strategic partnership agreement, which provides for the construction of an energy bridge from the Caucasus region to Europe.
As part of the agreement reached, the construction of a Black Sea Energy undersea electric cable with a capacity of 1,000 MW and a length of 1,195 kilometers is expected. The cable will be designed to supply green electricity produced in Azerbaijan through Georgia and the Black Sea to Romania for onward transport to Hungary and the rest of Europe. This will allow for the supply of up to four gigawatts of green energy.
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