BAKU, Azerbaijan, Oct.26
By Leman Zeynalova – Trend:
The Black Sea Trade and Development Bank (BSTDB) is ready to expand our cooperation with the local financial institutions in Azerbaijan to provide targeted credit lines for trade finance, leasing and mortgage finance, and SME financing, Dmitry Pankin, President of the Black Sea Trade and Development Bank (BSTDB) said in an exclusive interview with Trend.
“Supporting SMEs in the non-oil sector is particularly important. Given that SMEs in Azerbaijan are relatively small and so are the loan amounts they are looking for, the way to work with them is through local financial institutions. This is how we largely work with SMEs in Azerbaijan and in other member countries,” he said.
Pankin recalled that in August 2021 BSTDB extended a new AZN 10 million local currency SME facility (approx. EUR 5 million) to TuranBank to help increase availability of funds for SMEs, so they can get immediate short-term support for their production and investment programmes and for working capital needs.
“This was the BSTDB’s second Manat SME loan to Turanbnak after the successful utilization of the first facility provided in 2019, that reached more than 3000 SMEs in the country.
Local curency funding will give additional comfort to SMEs and will not impose exchange rate challenges, especially amidst the negative impact of the pandemic,” he added.
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