IDB to help Azerbaijan increase trade with OIC countries (PHOTO/VIDEO)

Baku, Azerbaijan, Jan. 23

By Azad Hasanli – Trend:

One of the key objectives of the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) is to further promote cooperation between its member countries, Sayed Aqa, IDB vice president, who was in Baku Jan. 17-20, said in an exclusive interview with Trend.

“As part of this cooperation, increasing the volume of trade and investment between OIC member countries, between the members of IDB is one of our key, strategy priorities,” he said. “We are engaged with the government of Azerbaijan to achieve that.”

For example, Islamic Corporation for Development of the Private Sector (ICD, a multilateral development financial institution and part of the IDB Group) held a very successful investment forum in Baku in December 2016, and more than 70 investors and companies took part in this forum, IDB vice president said.

“We believe that it will provide positive results to attract investors, especially from the Gulf countries and other member countries of IDB,” he said. “We also have an insurance arm [Islamic Corporation for the Insurance of Investment and Export Credit, ICIEC], they can provide assurances to the investors. This is how IDB will be able to help, also we can provide trade financing for the investors and traders in Azerbaijan.”

Regarding the results of his visit to Baku, IDB vice president said that they were quite positive.

He added that he was quite pleased to be in Azerbaijan, a country that had made a lot of development achievements.

While in Baku, Aqa discussed cooperation between the IDB and the government of Azerbaijan at a policy level, he held meetings with the country’s ministers of economy, finance, agriculture, the water authority, as well as Deputy Prime Minister Abid Sharifov.

The sides discussed how IDB can continue to be a strong partner of Azerbaijan in its development, Aqa said. IDB discussed a number of programs and railway projects in Azerbaijan, as well as the Southern Gas Corridor project, he added.

IDB has a regional program for Central Asia and Azerbaijan, and this program focuses on trade, agriculture, energy and transport, IDB vice president noted.

“The government of Azerbaijan has contributed to this program, so we discussed how we can promote for the regional cooperation in this area,” he said.

IDB also discussed with Azerbaijan cooperation in terms of capacity development and taking some of its experiences, like ASAN (state agency for government services to citizens in Azerbaijan) or other achievements to other countries or bring some best practices in agriculture and water management from other countries to Azerbaijan, IDB vice president said.

Azerbaijan became a member of IDB in 1992. The bank has invested about $1.3 billion in Azerbaijan for the implementation of projects in various spheres of economy.