Azerbaijan, Baku, 6 March / corr. Trend I. Khalilova/ The International Finance Cooperation (IFC), the member of World Bank Group, have announced that it will finance the Aureos Fund of Central Asia, a direct investments fund which will finance small and medium businesses in the Central Asia and Caucasus, the Cooperation said.
Some $10mln worth of investments will enable the Fund to provide financial support to the entrepreneurs of the region and to assist them in improving cooperative management and to raise ecological indicators of their business. The Fund established by Aureos Capital, will work with the companies in Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan where access to the capital markets and consultative services are limited.
"IFC will provide financial support to the small and medium businesses with limited access to financial resources in Central Asia through Fund Aureos investments," Haidi Selaya, the director of IFC on funds said.
"Small and medium businesses in agriculture, manufacturing industry and service industries are very important for the stable development and to create jobs in Central Asia and these businesses do not have the appropriate access to the capital markets," Shabaz Mavaddat, the director of IFC on South Europe and Central Asia said.
The Central Asian Aureos Fund has already attracted $50mln and is expected to attract another $50mln. CDC Group, the fund of the Great Britain government, FMO (the company of Netherlands on development of the finances) and Kazina (the Institute for financial development funded by the Kazakhstan government) have invested into the Fund already.
The Fund plans to invest in small and medium businesses in capital goods production, food industry, service industry, pharmaceutics, building materials, as well as logistics.
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