Azerbaijan, Baku, Feb. 6 / Trend A. Akhundov /
The World Bank (WB) and the Azerbaijani government can launch work as part of the multi-year Joint Economic Research Programme - JERP in the short term, the bank's manager in Azerbaijan Larisa Leshchenko told Trend.
"We have significantly advanced negotiations, but today there are a number of technical issues to be solved. There are different schemes of work. Now we are working on one that will be acceptable for Azerbaijan, and fit into a framework agreement with the WB. If we reach agreement on these key areas in the near future, we can sign the agreement. Today we continue to discuss the programme and I think that the prospects of signing are high enough "Leshchenko said.
The Azerbaijani government and the World Bank are developing a framework agreement to start work within JERP. The first three-year cycle of the programme is preliminarily planned at five million dollars. As part of the programme, the Azerbaijani government will be able to request study on various topics from the WB, and will finance them.
"The programme provides mechanisms which will allow it to jointly determine the topics, areas of technical assistance and economic research. It is necessary to build the programme so that analytical skills and potential in this field are developed in Azerbaijan. This question is on the agenda because the Azerbaijani side wants this programme not only to result in some research and technical assistance, but also provide analytical skills and strengthen this field so that people and research institutes can carry out this work on their own. We are looking for a solution of this issue and to date, discussions are underway, "Leshchenko said.
As the government told Trend earlier, this mechanism will allow Azerbaijan to obtain financial leverage on consultants.
Azerbaijan has been a member of the World Bank since 1992.