Azernews.Az

By Aynur Jafarova

President of the Asian Development Bank Takehiko Nakao will visit Baku on November 3-4, 2014.

The main purpose of Nakao's visit to Azerbaijan is to discuss the preparation for an annual meeting of the bank's board of governors scheduled for May 2-5, 2015 in Baku, Director of the ADB Public Relations Department Omana Nair told Trend.

Nakao traditionally visits the country chosen for hosting the meeting of the ADB Board of Governors to eye the organizational issues with the hosting country.

"This is also a great opportunity for discussing the cooperation prospects during the visit, given that Azerbaijan is ADB's important partner," she said.

Nair stressed that holding of such a large-scale event will also have a positive impact on the image of the country. Around 4,000 guests, including finance ministers, heads of central banks, representatives of research institutions and other participants from 67 ADB member-states are expected to arrive in Azerbaijan. Around 45 conferences and workshops, high-level meetings are planned to be held as part of the annual meeting.

"This is a great opportunity to discuss a wide range of economic and socio-economic issues and investment prospects," she said.

ADB was established in 1966 and has 67 members. The bank's headquarters is located in Manila, Philippines. Azerbaijan joined ADB on December 22, 1999. The country's share equity in the bank's capital is 0.5 percent. ADB's active credit portfolio in the country reached $1.637 billion.

ADB's leading shareholders are Japan and the United States (31.2 percent of the total share capital), India and China (12.8 percent), Australia, South Korea and Canada (16 percent).