World Bank, Azerbaijan map out further coop
By Nigar Orujova
The World Bank and the Azerbaijani government have identified areas of activity within the last year of the four-year strategy for Azerbaijan, which expires in mid-2014, the head of WB Baku office Larisa Leshchenko told Trend news agency on October 3.
According to Leshchenko, the bank intends to continue working in the area of improving road and water supply infrastructure, and also sees a need for new projects.
The bank has also started developing a new project to upgrade Azerbaijan's judiciary system. The project is likely to be approved by the WB Board of Directors by the end of March 2014.
The new project will mainly cover the issues relating to institutional development of the judiciary system, use of new procedures and approaches and further introduction of information and communication technologies.
The WB is also considering new areas of cooperation, and discussions to that end will begin while preparing the new strategy, according to Leshchenko.
Moreover, the WB plans to start consultations on the development of a new strategy for operations in Azerbaijan, which will cover the current and new fields, in November-December 2013, she said.
The WB intends to finalize the preparation of the strategy over one year and submit the draft document for consideration to the WB Board of Directors in October 2014.
The document will be broadly discussed with the government and the public of the country.
Pursuant to the strategy, the bank is ready to allocate funds for a new project, Azerbaijan Rural Investment Project (AzRIP-3).
The second project, AzRIP-2, went into effect in late 2012.
The WB also stresses the great demand for financing melioration and irrigation and expresses readiness to work in this area.
The development of alternative energy sources, higher education reform with an emphasis on vocational education, and healthcare financing may also be new areas of activity for the WB.
The bank has financed more than 50 projects worth more than $3 billion after Azerbaijan joined it in 1992.
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