Hamed Alqaseer: Bahrain plans to adopt Baku's experience in greening and smart solutions

Bahrain intends to closely study Baku's experience in green solutions and sustainable urban development with a view to potentially applying these approaches in the kingdom in the future, Hamed Alqaseer, Assistant Manager for Sales and Marketing at Bahrain's Eskan Bank, told Report during the 13th session of the World Urban Forum (WUF13).

He emphasized that the Bahraini delegation is highly interested in learning from international experience in urban renewal. According to him, the forum in Baku has already exceeded all expectations, and the Bahraini side hopes to learn as much as possible - including from Azerbaijan - about how the country managed to transform its capital into a beautiful and modern metropolis within a relatively short period of time.

Speaking about Bahrain's national urban development strategy, Alqaseer noted that one of the kingdom's key challenges remains the implementation of environmentally friendly approaches in an extremely hot, essentially desert climate, which creates objective difficulties for large-scale greening projects.

"That is precisely why we came here - to learn more about green solutions and about the resources cities such as Baku use to become green, sustainable, and smart," he said.

The delegation representative added that participation in WUF13 will allow Bahrain to establish direct cooperation with Azerbaijani ministries and companies, which he described as the best form of bilateral collaboration.

Commenting on the possibility of signing official documents on the sidelines of the forum, he noted that Bahrain's Minister of Housing is currently in Baku and participating in panel discussions as a speaker.

"Our Minister of Housing is here. I believe she is participating as a speaker, although I do not yet know whether anything will be signed," Alqaseer said.

He also stressed that the main outcome Bahrain expects from the forum is gaining new international experience in urban development.

"We want to gain more experience not only from Baku and Azerbaijan, but from the entire world on how to improve urban planning and urban renewal in Bahrain. This concerns both the restoration of old cities and the development of greening initiatives, waste recycling, and green energy," the Bahraini representative emphasized.