Azernews.Az

Azerbaijan ranks fifth in the overall portfolio of the Black Sea Trade and Development Bank, following the BSTDB's major shareholders -- Russia, Turkey, Ukraine and Bulgaria, up from the 6th place at the end of 2011, the bank's president, Andrey Kondakov, has said.

The BSTDB's active portfolio in Azerbaijan includes 18 operations totaling over 93 million euros at the end of June 2012, Kondakov said in an interview with the Baku-based Trend news agency. He said that in 2012, the bank signed three operations totaling 24 million euros supporting small business and real estate development in Azerbaijan.

Kondakov said that this year the BSTDB intends to further strengthen the support for development of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the country, as well as to provide trade finance facilities to promote export and import transactions of Azerbaijani businesses with other countries of the Black Sea region and the world.

According to him, during the discussions on the BSTDB's strategy for Azerbaijan with the country's government, it was agreed that the bank should focus generally upon viable operations in the priority sectors of transport, agriculture and agribusiness, manufacturing and SME sector development.

The BSTDB, headquartered in Thessaloniki, Greece, is an international financial institution established by Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Georgia, Greece, Moldova, Romania, Russia, Turkey, and Ukraine. In early July the BSTDB Board of Governors elected Azerbaijan as its new chair. Bulgaria and Georgia were elected as deputy chairs, for a period of one year until the next annual meeting due in the Azerbaijani capital Baku on June 9, 2013.