Azernews.Az

By Nigar Abbasova

The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) may open its representative office in Baku.

The department head at Azerbaijan’s Economy Ministry, Ruslan Rustamli, told Trend that the authority is ready to discuss the issue after expansion of the Bank’s activity in the country.

He mentioned that such cooperation practice is analogous to that established with other international financial institutions as the World Bank (WB) or the Asian Development Bank (SDB).

As for the cooperation with the AIIB, Rustamli said the Bank is involved in the implementation of the Trans-Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline (TANAP), but no discussion is currently on track on the realization of other projects.

He mentioned that the government of Azerbaijan is also interested in the direct cooperation between AIIB and private sector of the country, mentioning that the institution may issue credits for banks and real sector, large and small scale enterprises.

Rustamli said that the Bank is a relatively new institution, while it aims at the expansion of regional cooperation, integration processes, strengthening of the economy, resistance to external shocks and financial crisis, improvement of living conditions in member countries.

“In this regard, we are interested in cooperation with the Bank within the implementation of our state programs, strategies, priorities and new strategic road maps,” he added.

The AIIB earlier approved the allocation of a loan worth $600 million for the Trans-Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline (TANAP) project. The bank announced that the loan will be allocated for the Southern Gas Corridor CJSC.

Azerbaijan is one of the founders of the AIIB that was created in June 2015. The country’s share in the bank’s share capital is 0.2851 percent ($254.1 million).

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

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