MALL OVERHAUL
The Ganja Shopping Mall project is set to transform the shopping environment in the region and create many new opportunities for the city and its citizens.
Shopping is more than an activity to pass the time in Azerbaijan—it is more of a lifestyle. The capital city of Baku is extensively lined with a number of shopping malls, from very high-end luxury and boutique-style shops, to large malls designed to cater to the needs of everyone's financial and personal shopping needs. The malls are almost always crowded with consumers eager to spend money and socialize with friends and family. Due to the Azerbaijani people's affinity with spending time in malls and their proclivity for shopping, the people of Ganja are about to experience a serious overhaul in the availability of shopping opportunities in the city.
As the second biggest city in Azerbaijan, Ganja enjoys a population of over 300,000 potential consumers. The appetite of mall-goers in Ganja is set to be satisfied in a very big way, with the construction of the new Ganja Shopping Mall underway. This mall is currently the largest construction project in the city and it requires the building of an architecturally complex and modern building. Set to forever change the cityscape in Ganja, this 50,000sqm, nine floor behemoth is in the final stages of its concrete structural construction phase and has set a tentative operational start date for the first quarter of 2017. This project is one of the most important infrastructure developments in the city.
For all intents and purposes, suffice it to say that this mall will have everything that a modern shopper could possibly want. The specific construction plan of the mall has taken a lot of different factors into account in this regard. For example, there will be extensive parking opportunities on the basement levels of the mall to cater especially to visitors outside of the city who will come to Ganja to take advantage of the newly created shopping destination. Moving up the floors, the ground floor of the mall will have a supermarket in addition to other retail areas, which allows for the mall to exist outside of the traditional mall model and to cater to the grocery needs of the people. The next few floors feature highly coveted retail real estate, equipped also with a wide range of food options including a food court, food shops, and an assortment of restaurants. The mall will also have terraces as well, allowing the shoppers to take a break from the hustle and bustle of mall activity to enjoy the quiet scenery of Ganja. Moving on to the highest floors, the Ganja Shopping Mall is also proud to be the home of a fully modern cinema, which will take up two floors in its own right. Including a cinema inside of the mall will work to bring in additional financial activity, as a highly developed cinema will even attract consumers to whom shopping does not offer a great appeal. The addition of the cinema will widen the target audience of the mall, a business-savvy move.
The commencement date for tenants and third parties who would like to do business in this new megaproject is scheduled for October 2016. The anticipation behind this project is palpable, as it is not only the largest current infrastructural project of Ganja, but also a fixture in the minds of its citizens. It is truly a human interest project that has many people in Ganja and the larger surrounding area excited, in addition to being important for the city in terms of generating new financial revenue, which it will also provide. Citizens in the area no longer have to take a multiple-hour drive to spend the weekend in Baku to satisfy their shopping needs. The idea is that shoppers in the country's second largest city now have a highly developed mall of their own, in Ganja. There are also plans for regularly scheduled buses that will bring people in from the other regions of Azerbaijan to the city of Ganja, which can also facilitate in the mall's ability to bring a new source of revenue to the city.
The creation of a mall of this size and stature in Ganja will likely bring many positive effects to the city overall. A mall megastructure that takes up nine floors including the basement and roof floors will mean that it will provide ample employment opportunities for citizens in Ganja and the larger area. All of the department stores inside of the mall will need to be staffed with local talent and a mall of this size will likely require sizable maintenance, operations, and management crews, thus creating employment opportunities for people of all different backgrounds and experiences.
Above all, the Ganja Shopping Mall project, once completed, will provide a new social scene for the city. It is home to its own small environment just by itself. The mall will become a one stop shop for almost all of the people's needs in Ganja, whether it is a desire for entertainment at the movies, to pick up some groceries for your family, or to spend quality time perusing stores with friends in search of a perfect outfit or the most recent technological gizmos and toys. The Ganja Shopping Mall will elevate the standards of shopping in the region and serve as an outpost of shopping activity for the larger area.
MALL OVERHAUL
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Year In Review
Good Times Ahead
<strong></strong><strong>In a year dominated by the overarching theme of low hydrocarbons prices, Azerbaijan showed resilience and verve in putting in place bold measures both to counter the slump in energy prices and put its economy on a surer footing.</strong>
read articleReview: Diplomacy
Operation Outreach
In 2015, Azerbaijan's military budget increased by a notable 27%, to $4.8 billion, or 17.9% of the government's total budget for the year. The first Azerbaijan Defence Exhibition (ADEX 2014), drew over 200 companies from 34 countries, including Russia and the US.
read articleInterview
Rufat Mammadov, President, Azerbaijan Export and Investment Promotion Foundation (AZPROMO)
TBY talks to Rufat Mammadov, President of the Azerbaijan Export and Investment Promotion Foundation (AZPROMO), on large-scale events and their ability to attract FDI and the potential Iran may hold.
read articleReview: Banking
More Interest
In a sector faced with relatively flat growth for 2015-16, new opportunities are still there aplenty, led by the nascent Islamic banking sector, e-banking, and microfinance initiatives. Together, these areas should make banking more diversified and less reliant on a buoyant energy sector for its capital inlay.
read articleReview: Capital Markets
Taking Stock
As Azerbaijan grapples with the knock-on effects of low hydrocarbon prices, the Baku Stock Exchange (BSE) finds itself at the center of the country's efforts to stave off a budget deficit this year. In January, the government announced plans to sell $500 million worth of bonds on the BSE.
read articleReview: Industry & Mining
In The Bag
Industry in Azerbaijan is long established, diversified, and, in many areas, fast growing. Together, these qualities make the sector well placed to see through the global slump in commodity prices, while at home, the manufacturing industry continues to find ways to use its hydrocarbons expertise in other fields, including high technologies and research.
read articleInterview
Khanlar Fatiyev, , Chairman of the Supervisory Board, Ganja Automobile Plant Production Association
TBY talks to Khanlar Fatiyev, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of the Ganja Automobile Plant Production Association, on the role of the plant in driving growth in the non-oil sector.
read articleReview: Transport
The New Node
With major new railways linking the region, the opening of the new Baku International Sea Trade Port Complex, the completion of a massive program of road building and upgrading, investment in state-of-the-art fleets ranging from Boeing 787s to rail locomotives, Azerbaijan can rightly claim the title as the Caucasus' transportation hub.
read articleReview: Agriculture
Lots More
Farms across the country are pursuing a policy of increased yields for year-round fruit and in the wheat harvest to stave off an over-reliance on imports. With carefully targeted increases in exports, better routes to port and to market, and greater sophistication of agricultural facilities, farming could soon be the morning star of Azerbaijan's diversified economy.
read articleReview: Health
Under One Umbrella
Life expectancy at birth (2015) is 75 years for women and 70 for men. The median age is 30. For both sexes, longevity increased by six years between 2000 and 2012. Azerbaijan is a relatively youthful country—an important factor in healthcare—with 22% of its populace aged under 15 and just 9% aged over 60.
read articleReview: Education
Baku to School
Azerbaijan's culture has always harbored a deep respect for educational values. This is embodied in the country's Azerbaijan 2020 mission statement, which seeks to raise standards across the sector and introduce ICT as a standard part of the learning experience at all levels.
read articleInterview
Elkhan Mammadov,, Secretary General, Association of Football Federations of Azerbaijan (AFFA)
TBY talks to Elkhan Mammadov, Secretary General of the Association of Football Federations of Azerbaijan (AFFA), on the experience Azerbaijan is gaining in hosting international events.
read article