Azernews.Az

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is developing a new development strategy on Azerbaijan, its executive has said during a visit to Baku.
Simon Ray of the United Kingdom, who sits on the bank’s board of directors, told a press conference Wednesday that drafting this strategy is one of the purposes of the visit to Azerbaijan by the EBRD’s mission, which comprises a third of the board members.
The strategy, he said, focuses on such issues as supporting non-oil sector growth and economic diversification.
Ray said that discussions will be held in London on the outcomes of their visit. Upon their conclusion, the preliminary version of the document will be completed in July and it will be further submitted to the EBRD board of directors in September.
According to Ray, the EBRD directors’ meetings in Baku centered on the bank’s possible support to the development of such fields as the non-oil sector, finance, funding small and medium enterprise, energy and energy supplies, as well as assistance in improving the business climate in Azerbaijan.
"We had quite a good impression during the meetings, in particular, in terms of the government’s managing oil resources. Also, the measures taken by the authorities last year to ward off the crisis produced a positive impression."
Ray said, further, that the EBRD doubled investments in Azerbaijan in 2009. Moreover, the bank increased the investment capital by 50 percent, which will considerably affect the entire South Caucasus, he said, noting that it is one of the priority regions for EBRD investments.
Stefka Slavova, another EBRD board of directors member, who represents Bulgaria, Poland and Albania, said the Azerbaijani government has recently taken a number of substantial steps to better the business climate in the country. According to her, the laws passed by Azerbaijan are advanced but during some of the meetings the EBRD executives were told that some of them are not being enforced. Notably, representatives of micro-finance institutions complained over the lack of a credit register, citing obstacles in borrowing loans.
The eight-people-strong delegation’s visit, to last till Friday, is part of a regular series of consultations that enable EBRD directors to obtain up-to-date information on developments in the bank’s countries of operation. The agenda includes meetings with senior officials, representatives of local business and the NGO community, as well as representatives of international financial institutions active in Azerbaijan and the diplomatic community.
With committed investments in excess of $1 billion in various sectors of the Azerbaijani economy, the EBRD is one of the largest investors in the country.
The EBRD, owned by 61 countries and two intergovernmental institutions, is supporting the development of market economies and democracies in countries from central Europe to central Asia.*