BAKU, Azerbaijan, October 18. The Central Bank of Azerbaijan plans to start implementing a sustainable financing plan and framework conditions for financial institutions by the end of the year, Director General of the Central Bank of Azerbaijan Shahin Mahmudzade said at the forum on “Green finance and sustainable development” in Baku today, Trend reports.
According to him, the Central Bank of Azerbaijan has divided its policy on sustainable finance into four key directions.
“The first direction is related to capacity development of the financial sector. Without the necessary human resources neither in the Central Bank nor in the financial sector, it is impossible to talk about the development of sustainable finance. To this end, a series of activities aimed at improving the qualifications of specialists have been carried out since this year. The second direction is the elimination of regulatory gaps. This involves the development and adaptation of new rules, laws, and regulations that meet the needs of the local market. The third direction is the creation of a taxonomy. In other countries, this process usually takes 1-2 years, but Azerbaijan aims to complete it in 6 months, accelerated by COP29. At the moment the project is at the final stage. The fourth direction is transparency.
Although financial institutions are already partially compliant with ESG requirements, the main challenge remains raising public awareness. In this regard, the Central Bank has presented its first sustainable finance plan and is developing framework conditions for local financial institutions to disclose their plans as well. It is planned to finalize and implement this process by the end of the year,” he said.