BAKU, Azerbaijan, June 17. More than $1.35 billion in credit lines were allocated to support SMEs, the CEO of the International Islamic Trade Finance Corporation (ITFC), Adeeb Alaama, said, Trend's correspondent reports from the event.
He made the remark at the panel titled "CEO's session on making regional integration attractive for investment: promoting trade, mobilizing investment and systematically de-risking growth" held within the framework of the 51st Annual Meeting of the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) Group in Baku.
According to him, SMEs face serious difficulties both in accessing financial resources and in exporting their products to global markets.
Alaama pointed out that the organization's main priority is to solve two major problems faced by SMEs.
"One of the biggest challenges for SMEs is access to capital. At the same time, the second main problem is to export their products to global markets," he explained.
The ITFC head noted that in order to solve these problems, cooperation is being carried out with local banks, and credit lines are being provided to them.
"We work with local banks around the world and allocate credit lines to them. These banks then direct these funds to where they are most needed, especially the private sector and SMEs," he shared.
Alaama added that the organization is not limited to financing, but also supports SMEs in project preparation and transformation into bankable initiatives.
"We help SMEs transform their ideas into bankable projects and then export them to global markets," he also said.
According to the head of ITFC, the volume of credit lines provided in 2025 exceeded $1.35 billion and work in this direction will continue.
He also mentioned a number of regional programs. These include the Arab Africa Trade Bridges, AFTIAS (Arab Aid for Trade Initiative for Arab States), and the Trade Connect Central Asia Plus (TCCAP) program. Within the framework of TCCAP, Azerbaijan also participates as a "Plus" country.
Alaama emphasized that supporting the private sector, and SMEs in particular, is one of the main priorities in the organization's new five-year strategy.
"Currently, we are working with hundreds of enterprises, but in the coming years, our goal is to reach thousands of SMEs. This approach will be implemented both through financing and expanding access to markets," he concluded.
