Baku, Azerbaijan, May 20
Trend:
The World Bank Group (WB) is ready to support the development of agricultural insurance in Azerbaijan, said Rolf Behrndt, manager of the World Bank Group's finance and markets practice.
He made the remarks at the meeting with the head of the Board of Directors of Azerbaijan's Financial Market Supervisory Body Rufat Aslanli in Baku.
As Trend reported earlier, the implementation of the project in agricultural sphere is planned jointly with the International Finance Corporation (IFC, a member of the World Bank Group), which has already sent its offers to the Azerbaijani government. Within the project, the IFC aims to share best practices and experience in creating an effective system of farmers' insurance against weather risks with the government and private sector, assist in the management of this process at all levels and training of specialists in this area, to create a legal basis and others.
Behrndt informed about the preparation of the draft law on the establishment of private credit bureaus in Azerbaijan, as well as the prolongation of duration of technical assistance activities on consumer protection and increasing financial literacy until October 2016.
In particular, the progress of the project on modernization of Azerbaijan's financial sector was discussed during the meeting.
"A very effective business relationship has been created between the WB and the newly-created Financial Market Supervisory Body," said Aslanli.
He also expressed interest in establishing private credit bureaus in the country.
Aslanli noted that the data collected in these bureaus will help effective regulation of the banking sector in the future.
The parties also discussed the progress of the project on providing financial services to the national postal operator Azerpost LLC, the issues of cooperation in the sphere of insurance sector's development in Azerbaijan.
In March 2011, the World Bank approved a loan for Azerbaijan worth $12 million for the implementation of the Capital Markets Modernization project.
Total cost of the project is $15.8 million. Besides the WB loan, the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs of Switzerland (SECO) has allocated a grant worth $1.6 million and the Azerbaijani government - $2.2 million for the project.
Azerbaijan joined the WB in 1992.
Edited by SI