Baku, Azerbaijan, Dec.7
Anvar Mammadov– Trend:
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) will start developing a new strategy for operations in Azerbaijan next year, Aziz Haydarov, senior portfolio management specialist at ADB’s Azerbaijan Resident Mission, told Trend Dec. 6.
He said the new strategy will cover 2019-2023, adding that ADB is in constant contact with the government of Azerbaijan regarding new projects.
Touching upon the spheres of further cooperation with Azerbaijan, Haydarov noted that along with traditional spheres, new directions could be included in the strategy.
"At the moment, our areas of partnership with Azerbaijan include transport, water supply and sewerage, energy and public administration, I think we will continue and even intensify cooperation in these areas, and we do not exclude the possibility of cooperation in the social sector, given that in this direction there is interest from the relevant structures," said Haydarov.
"In particular, we are interested in working in the field of vocational education.We are also actively discussing the preparation pilot projects on public-private partnerships," he said.
ADB approved previous country strategy for Azerbaijan in 2014.
In September 2017, ADB approved a business plan for operations in Azerbaijan for 2018-2020, according to which Azerbaijan will receive funds from ADB only in the form of ordinary capital resources. The estimated cost of the ADB lending program for three years is $1.6 billion. The total cost of projects, taking into account the share of the Azerbaijani government, is 1.985 billion dollars.
ADB was founded in 1966 and 67 states are its members. The bank’s headquarters is located in Manila, Philippines.
Azerbaijan became an ADB member in 1999. Since joining ADB, Azerbaijan has received grants and loans amounting to $4.1 billion.