Baku, Azerbaijan, Oct. 6
By Anvar Mammadov - Trend:
Maintaining economic growth of Azerbaijan at the level of 6-7 percent per year is one of the goals of the government, Angela Prigozhina of the World Bank Country Sector Coordinator for Financial and Private Sector Development in the South Caucasus region said Oct. 6 at an event dedicated to the presentation of the new law "On the Securities Market".
"This requires a lot of work towards the development of the non-oil sector, increasing the export capacity of the country," Prigozhina said.
She said that the private sector share in the export of Azerbaijan is very low - only 10 percent, whereas, for example in Ukraine, the figure is 54 percent, and in Europe - 56-60 percent. "This confirms the fact that Azerbaijan has the potential to develop the private sector and now is the time to do it," she said.
Prigozhina said that another important point is the need to diversify the country's financial sector and capital market development.
"The capital market plays a very important role in the access to long-term financial services," said Prigozhina. "Many companies access to long-term financial services in Azerbaijan is currently not very high, so it is important to expand these opportunities."
She went on to add that in order to modernize capital markets, the World Bank is implementing the project together with the government of Azerbaijan.
"The project is estimated at $16 million, $12 million of which are provided by the World Bank in the form of a loan for 27 years, and $2.4 million were allocated by the Azerbaijani government," said the expert of the World Bank. "In addition, $1.6 million was provided by State Secretariat for Economic Affairs SECO in the form of grant. Practically the entire allocated amount was spent, as the project is now coming to an end. It will be finished July 1, 2016."
Edited by CN