Azerbaijan, Baku, July 31 / Trend A. Badalova, A.Akhundov /
Azerbaijan has achieved impressive rates of economic growth, particularly in the mid part of the previous decade, Andrey Kondakov, BSTDB president said in an interview with Trend.
"It /country/ successfully navigated its way through the global financial crisis relatively unscathed, with a reduction in GDP growth rates, but without the severe contractions observed elsewhere," Kondakov said.
Kondakov said that Azerbaijan can be proud of the impressive decline in the achieved poverty rates, as well as other important social indices which point to improving living standards.
Kondakov also stressed that Azerbaijan has done relatively well in improving the business environment.
"BSTDB is keen to project the achievements and investment and business opportunities that Azerbaijan has to offer to investors, financiers, traders, tourists, and others in the Black Sea region and beyond," Kondakov added.
BSTDB is an international financial institution established by Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Georgia, Greece, Moldova, Romania, Russia, Turkey, and Ukraine. The BSTDB headquarters is in Thessaloniki, Greece. BSTDB supports economic development and regional cooperation by providing loans, credit lines, equity and guarantees for projects and trade financing in the public and private sectors in its member countries.
In July, 2012 BSTDB Board elected the Governor for the Republic of Azerbaijan as the new Chairman of the BSTDB Board of Governors. The Governors for the Republic of Bulgaria and Georgia were elected as Deputy Chairmen, for a period of one year until the next Annual Meeting decided to take place in Baku, Azerbaijan, on June 9, 2013.
With regards to the impact of current situation on the world markets on the activities of BSTDB, Kondakov said that the global situation has affected the Black Sea region negatively, despite the generally positive performance of our member countries' economies. "Funding is undoubtedly tighter and more expensive, and availability of funds is more uncertain - the freezing of capital markets (as it was in September 2008) could happen once again, something which everyone knows and against which they seek to fortify themselves," Kondakov said.
However, according to Kondakov, the situation creates opportunities for BSTDB and other development institutions, since they offer country risk mitigation and long term financing much demanded by firms and banks in our region.
"BSTDB tries to be selective and to choose projects with the highest development impact, since it does not have the size or resources of large institutions, such as the World Bank," he said.
After a brief halt in late 2008 and 2009, the bank's portfolio resumed growing in 2010 and 2011, and we BSTDB is committed to further manage growth in 2012 and beyond, Kondakov added.