Baku, Azerbaijan, May 25
By Anvar Mammadov - Trend:
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) will extend support to the private sector in Azerbaijan, head of the EBRD's Baku office Neil McKain told Trend.
"The bank implemented 21 projects in Azerbaijan in 2014," he said. "All projects were implemented in the private sector. This is the main sector for us, and we will continue to extend its support."
McKain also said that the EBRD plans to increase its overall portfolio on Azerbaijan.
"We plan to expand investments in the banking and agricultural sectors, as well as the production of building materials," said the representative of the bank. "These areas are priority ones for us. It is now difficult to talk about some exact figures because we do not have budget like the World Bank (WB) or the Asian Development Bank (ADB). We do not plan investments in advance but rely on market requirements."
EBRD has allocated $2.5 billion to finance 146 projects in various sectors of the economy since the beginning of cooperation with Azerbaijan. One of the EBRD main tasks is to ensure the stable development of Azerbaijan's non-oil sector by investing in small and medium private enterprises.
Azerbaijan is the largest recipient of the EBRD funds in the Caucasus, as well as one of the largest recipients - in the CIS and Eastern Europe. The EBRD invested 238 million euros in the implementation of 21 projects in Azerbaijan in 2014.
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