Azernews.Az

By Nigar Abbasova

A delegation representing European Bank for Reconstruction and Development was on an official visit to Azerbaijan. The delegation was led by the president of the bank Suma Chakrabarti.

Azerbaijan Economy Minister Shahin Mustafayev, during the meeting with the head of the bank, underlined the need in technical support for establishing a free trade zone which is located in the Alat settlement of Baku’s Garadagh district.

Suma Chakrabarti in his turn said that the EBRD will consider the issue of investing in the free trade zone which includes the territory of Azerbaijan’s Baku Sea Trade Port.

“EBRD will thoroughly investigate the issue. The bank is involved in the operations of free trade zones in other countries. Firstly, we should examine the issue from the economic point of view,” he said.

Creating a free trade zone is considered to be a milestone of Azerbaijan's policy to strengthen the country's position as a regional logistics and transportation hub due to its advantageous position at a crossroads of Europe and Asia nearby important markets such as China, Turkey, Iran and Russia.

Chakrabarti noted that the EBRD is planning to increase its investments in Azerbaijan in 2016. He underlined that the bank has a large role to play in the region, it attaches great importance to the cooperation with Azerbaijan and supports reforms implemented in the country. He noted that the investments in the private sector, particularly in the non-oil sector had been significantly raised in recent years.

The bank’s priorities in Azerbaijan are focused on promoting market-driven economic diversification and developing a sustainable financial sector to support private sector development. Regional economic connectivity and integration is one of the key priorities of the bank. Given the high potential of Azerbaijan's agricultural sector and its importance in terms of regional development, the bank places a special emphasis on the agricultural industry and considers offering an agricultural financing instruments and technical assistance to the Azerbaijani banks with the view to develop their capacity for providing assistance to support agricultural lending.

EBRD invested about €270 million to Azerbaijan last year. So far the bank allocated the loans at the extent of $2.9 billion for implementation of 164 projects, including 154 private sector projects.

The EBRD, which was was established in 1991, provides loans and investments for private and public sector projects in the areas of finance, infrastructure, industry and commerce.

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Nigar Abbasova is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @nigyar_abbasova

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