Baku, Azerbaijan, July 5
By Eldar Janashvili - Trend:
Four investment projects totaling $900 million will be financed by Asian Development Bank (ADB) in Azerbaijan as part of the recently approved five-year Country Partnership Strategy, Trend reports with reference to the bank’s report.
The ADB active projects in Azerbaijan include one policy-based loan totaling $250 million, and one partial credit guarantee for total exposure of $498 million (55 percent in transport and 45 percent in energy), according to the report.
Thus, the total value of all active sovereign operations reached $1.648 billion at the end of 2018.
The main objectives of the five-year strategy include increasing non-oil economy’s direct foreign investment as share of non-oil GDP from 2.6 percent in 2015 to 3.7 percent in 2023, increasing non-oil exports per capita from $170 in 2015 to at least $370 in 2023 and creation of additional 120,000 jobs in the non-oil tradable sectors by 2023.
Nine projects worth $8.6 million are planned as technical assistance. Of these, $2.9 million will be spent on projects to improve governance in the public sector, $2.8 million will be spent on energy projects, $2.3 million on the transport sector and $0.5 million on the financial sector of Azerbaijan.
The program to strengthen private sector development is primarily aimed at strengthening the financial sector and the capital market.
Following the implementation of this program, by 2023, Azerbaijan is expected to improve the rating indicators in the World Bank (WB) Doing Business report.
Last year, Azerbaijan rose to 25th place, leaving behind such countries as France, Japan, the Netherlands and others in terms of the ease of doing business index.
