New private sector led growth model can help Azerbaijan diversify its economy – IFC regional manager

By Trend

While supporting Azerbaijan’s sustainable and inclusive economic recovery, the International Finance Corporation (IFC) is confident that a new private sector led growth model can help the country diversify its economy and spur job creation by prioritizing the non-oil sectors, Ivana Fernandes Duarte, IFC’s Regional Manager for the South Caucasus, told Trend.

"As Azerbaijan makes recovery efforts to emerge from the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, a conducive investment climate will be a prerequisite to private sector development and a strong economy. For the last several years, IFC’s efforts in Azerbaijan have been concentrated on advisory work on financial infrastructure, also creating a legislative framework on investments and strategy for investment promotion. IFC’s work in the country involves support in a range of legislative and regulatory initiatives, with a focus on smaller businesses, agriculture, food safety, tourism, and inspection, among others," noted the IFC regional manager.

She went on to add that with advice from IFC, in partnership with the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs SECO, the government of Azerbaijan has implemented a series of regulatory reforms to improve the financial infrastructure and enable more small businesses to access credit.

"As part of these efforts, the government adopted a modern law on credit bureaus, enabling the creation of the country’s first private credit bureau. That has helped improve the quality and range of credit information, reducing financial institutions’ risks and facilitating more lending. IFC has also helped develop a secured transactions law with respective regulations and supported amendments to the related legislative acts that allow small businesses, which often lack assets like real estate, to use their movable assets, including inventory, accounts receivable, and equipment, as collateral. As a result of the reform, a movable collateral registry was created," Duarte said.

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