BAKU, Azerbaijan, November 18. The Black Sea Trade and Development Bank (BSTDB) is working on adding new partner banks to its network in Azerbaijan, President of BSTDB Serhat Köksal said in an exclusive interview with Trend.
“In addition to Turanbank and Rabita bank, with whom there are active lending operations, there are discussions with two other financial intermediaries about starting cooperation where the Bank can offer trade finance and/or SME facilities. In addition, we are interested in deepening our relationships with some large banks on funding side to be able to source local currency for on-lending to both FI and corporate clients,” he said.
Köksal said that the Bank is building up a pipeline in Azerbaijan in line with its appetite to do more and strengthen its presence in the country.
“Given the need to promote diversification of the economy and to strengthen the non-oil/ non-energy portion of the economy, the Bank will pay particular attention to operations which facilitate diversification, including the promotion of small and medium scale projects in the non-oil sector which generate new employment creation and development impact. In line with the increased strategic emphasis of the Bank to help countries to boost investment and to invest in infrastructure, BSTDB will prioritize such infrastructure investment activities where possible,” said the Bank’s president.
He pointed out that given the great need, however, for development of the non-energy related portion of the economy, BSTDB will be open to undertake bankable operations that support private sector development, with emphasis on high potential sectors like: (i) trade finance and financial sector, (ii) energy and infrastructure, (iii) manufacturing, (iv) agriculture and agribusiness, (v) petro-chemical industry, (vi) transport, and (vii) real estate an tourism.
“This means that we continue focusing on medium scale projects in the non-oil sector with development and regional cooperation impact. In particular, we have projects in agribusiness, in manufacturing of some industrial goods & household items, in logistics and retail sectors. These are mostly the projects of large local companies that plan to expand their business through their subsidiaries in different sectors. It is important to note that we also have some projects in our pipeline of some Azerbaijanian companies planning to expand regionally in the Caucasus and in Turkiye. We give priority to such projects since they fit perfectly to our mandate of regional cooperation,” Köksal said.
He noted that the Bank also continues to strengthen and expand cooperation with Azerbaijani banks, including through rolling over of existing trade finance lines and working on the new medium-term financing to support access to finance for SMEs, including through provision of funding in local currency.
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