BAKU, Azerbaijan, November 14. The Azerbaijani Ministry of Finance and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) have discussed the new Country Partnership Strategy for Azerbaijan covering 2025-2029, Trend reports via the ministry.
The meeting took place between Azerbaijan’s Minister of Finance, Sahil Babayev, and Masato Kanda, President of the Asian Development Bank (ADB), during Kanda’s inaugural official visit to the country.
Minister Babayev underscored the significance of Azerbaijan's enduring and productive partnership with the ADB, highlighting that under the leadership of President Ilham Aliyev, the country is steadily advancing toward its objectives of economic diversification, sustainable development, and regional leadership. He further emphasized that collaboration with international financial institutions plays a crucial role in this process.
The Minister expressed high regard for the long-standing cooperation between Azerbaijan and the ADB, noting that initiatives undertaken through loans, grants, and technical assistance have made substantial contributions to Azerbaijan's development agenda.
Briefing on the current economic situation and macroeconomic indicators of Azerbaijan, Babayev said that positive development dynamics are observed in the country's economy, especially in the non-oil sector, strategic foreign exchange reserves are at a high level, and public debt is at a fairly low level.
The new strategy covers priorities such as the development of the non-oil sector of the economy, increasing climate resilience, digital and green transformation, as well as strengthening the private sector.
The parties held extensive discussions on the main priority areas of cooperation, including the expansion of the Baku Metro, projects to be implemented in the areas of transport infrastructure, drinking water supply, water loss reduction, and stormwater management in Baku and surrounding areas, as well as modernization of railway infrastructure, public-private partnership projects, and regional connectivity initiatives.
In this context, the focus was also on ADB's integration into strategic regional projects such as the Middle Corridor and the Green Energy Corridor.
The meeting highly appreciated Azerbaijan's contributions to the Asian Development Fund (ADF), which supports ADB mainly in low-income countries to reduce poverty and improve the quality of life since 2021.
The meeting stressed that this support is an indicator of the importance Azerbaijan attaches to the policy of solidarity with the least developed countries and the promotion of inclusive regional development.
Kanda stated that ADB highly values Azerbaijan as an important and reliable partner and is ready to support the country's development priorities, including further expanding cooperation in the areas of regional connectivity, digital transformation, water management, and sustainable infrastructure.
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