Azerbaijan, Baku, April 25 / Trend A.Akhundov /
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is ready to provide additional funding for the transport sector in Azerbaijan, the head of the bank's mission in the country, Olly Norojono, told Trend on Wednesday.
"We are now at the stage of negotiations with the government on the subject of whether there is a need for additional funding. But overall, we are ready to provide funding for the transport sector in Azerbaijan," Norojono said.
For this purpose, a bank's specialist for urban transport arrived in Baku on a two-day visit to discuss these issues with the government.
As previously reported, for the development of urban transport of Baku an investment program is being prepared, for which ADB will provide $ 300 million.
In early 2011 the first advisory mission visited Baku to explore the possibilities for financing urban transport development of the capital. During the visit, meetings were held at the Ministry of Transport, JSC "Azerbaijan Railways", Baku Metro.
ADB plans to apply the approach of sustainable development for the road sector and to develop public transport and railways in Asia and the Pacific region in 2011-2020.
This goal is set in the operating plan of the sustainable transport initiative (STI), released by ADB to the public.
The main change is that by 2020 more capital will be invested in other areas of the transport sector than in the restoration of road infrastructure, although it remains a vast part of the ADB activities.
According to the STI, the ADB will invest each year $ 3-4 billion in the development of sustainable transport in Asia and the Pacific region.