DEVELOPMENT CONCEPT “AZERBAIJAN - 2020: OUTLOOK FOR THE FUTURE” Project The determination of links between economic goals and reserves, knowledge and the duties of the cultural sphere, and the development of information technologies will help develop innovative potential reflected in the National Strategy on Intellectual Property and the related state programme in the long-term. In the next few years, advanced world experience will be used to complete the process of forming a national innovation system that ensures the use, study and spread of new knowledge and technologies in line with the requirements of the information society in Azerbaijan. 5. The improvement of the transport infrastructure. The balanced development of regions In order to turn Azerbaijan into a regional trade hub, it is planned to make effective use of the country’s strategic geographical position, develop transit and transport services and form logistical centres in the regions of the country. All this will also increase the country’s attractiveness as a production and investment centre and help create new business and employment opportunities. The mechanism of managing local and international cargo transportation will improve and the integration of the country’s transport system into the international transport system will expand. In this regard, it is planned to take general measures that reflect a united strategic approach to automobile, railway, water, air and underground (metro) transport. In order to boost the country’s competitiveness in the Europe-Caucasus-Asia and North-South transport corridors, measures will be carried out to reduce the cost of cargo transportation in Azerbaijani territory, reduce the time of import and export operations and transit, and simplify procedures. In the coming years, the construction of the International Sea Trade Port in Alat will be completed, the maritime fleet will be updated and expanded, a transport-logistical centre will be built, the Baku-Boyuk Kasik and Baku-Yalama railways will be restored and modernized and the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway will be put into operation in line with the policy of diversifying the railway network. At the same time, the necessary reconstruction work will be carried on the main railways, the rolling stock will be updated and transition to an alternative current system in all railways will ensured. In the East-West and North-South transport corridors, the country’s road and transport infrastructure will be brought in line with international standards with the widening of roads and completion of projects to reconstruct and build roads of republican 18