Azerbaijan ready to support ADB's Road to 2030
By Fatma Babayeva
Azerbaijan is ready to support and take an active participation in consultations over Asian Development Bank's new strategy Road to 2030.
The statement was made by Azerbaijan's Finance Minister Samir Sharifov, who led the country’s delegation during the 49th annual gathering of ADB’s Board of Directors in Frankfurt, Germany on May 2-5.
The Finance Minister uttered confidence about the new strategy Road to 2030 which is being developed by the Bank.
This strategy will ensure more comprehensive solutions to the arising challenges, and its implementation will strengthen the ADB, Sharifov believes.
The minister noted that the current difficult external environment has been posing significant challenges for many Central Asian countries, including Azerbaijan, which is being severely affected by contagion of weak economic developments in the neighboring countries and sharp fall in oil prices.
Like many oil exporting countries, Azerbaijan faced decrease in oil export revenues that was reflected in reduction of current account surplus, substantial devaluation of the national currency and fall in budget revenues. In response, Azerbaijan’s government plans a transition to a new, more sustainable and balanced model of the economic growth, Sharifov said by explaining that this model envisages structural changes to diversify the economy, to reduce the dependence on oil and gas revenues, as well as, gradually to substitute public investments with foreign or domestic and/or private investments and to stimulate the growth of the private sector.
Under these circumstances, formulation and implementation of well-coordinated, broad based policy response is of great importance, said Sharifov.
In his remarks, the minister also drew the attention to the significance of increasing and expanding the credit operations of the ADB including support to the public sector.
Taking into account the various challenges that the member states have faced, special attention should be paid to increased utilization of rapid support instruments for the member countries in need while enhancing flexibility for processing standard and special loan instruments, he said.
Sharifov further reminded that the ADB has already reached its record performance in terms of loan allocation to the private sector and co-financing operations back in 2015.
The minister believes that the development in the private sector would reinforce the effectiveness and sustainability of ADB's operations in the public sector.
The ADB’s new strategy Road to 2030 will outline a vision and key directions for the bank’s engagement with developing member countries until 2030, describe how the bank aligns with the sustainable development goals and the new climate agreement, and identify institutional and organizational reforms necessary to sharpen the efficiency and effectiveness of the bank's engagement.
Azerbaijan has been a member of ADB since December 22, 1999. Share of the country in the bank’s capital amounts to 5 percent.
ADB has been allocated $2.6 billion loans and grants since 1999 including $738 million for the private sector.
In its turn, Azerbaijan's government is firmly set to create a favorable business environment that encourages investments to the private sector of the country. The government plans range of economic reforms recently in order to increase the resilience of the country to the external shocks.
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Fatma Babayeva is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Fatma_Babayeva
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