Today, 17 years have passed since the eternal rest of the National Leader Heydar Aliyev, the founder and architect of modern Azerbaijan. The staff of the State Maritime Agency also pays tribute to the memory of the National Leader. Independent Azerbaijan is a magnificent monument build on a sound foundation by the National Leader Heydar Aliyev. Because speaking about the main directions of Azerbaijan's development today, it should be unequivocally noted that this development is the result of the consistent continuation of the political line defined by the National Leader Heydar Aliyev.

Notwithstanding that the fleet of several countries disbanded during the collapse of the USSR, this field was preserved in Azerbaijan entirely under auspices of the founder of our statehood, National Leader Heydar Aliyev, and substantial reforms were undertaken in the maritime transport sector. The impression was received about the benefits of the far-sighted policy of National Leader Heydar Aliyev after carrying out major oil projects, including the "Contract of the Century" in the first years of our independence, the inauguration of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil export pipeline. As a continuation of his ideas of statehood, large-scale construction work is being undertaken in maritime transport, which is one of the strategically important sectors of our economy.

One of the outstanding characteristics of the Heydar Aliyev phenomenon was that he could anticipate and evaluate the results of his commenced work. Therefore, he confidently declared that after the proclamation of independence, Azerbaijan began to apply the principles of democracy, market economy, free economy, integration into the world community and the world economy, but also achieved remarkable success and made a start in such a way that would progress more rapidly from now on.