Azerbaijan, Baku / corr Trend I.Khalilova / The Black Sea Bank for Trade and Development (BBTD) is considering opportunities for the expansion of its credit portfolio in Azerbaijan.
Mikayil Jabbarov, the BBTD Director for Azerbaijan and the Azerbaijani Deputy Minister for Economic Development, said that major projects of the Bank in Azerbaijan including all those in the real sector, were financed by local banks. Jabbarov noted that two or three projects in the area of agricultural re-production are being considered by the bank.
Under the bank's strategy for 2007-2010 the BBTD stated its readiness to double its credit portfolio. Azerbaijan plays a significant role in this portfolio.
The Azerbaijani Government indicated that the number of projects financed by the BBTD in the non-financial sector is not sufficient. The Government called on the bank to implement more projects in the private sector through direct financing, but not approval of credit lines through the banking systems.
The deputy minister announced that the BBTD does not set a limit for the amount member-countries can receive from the bank's credit resources. However, the bank sets a maximum limit on any one project of an estimated budget of $22-23mln, while the BBTD could attract resources for syndicated financing.
Over the past five years the portfolio of the BBTD in Azerbaijan was in the amount of $31mln on eight projects, or approximately 3% of the total amount of the bank' s credit. Some $26mln of this sum was give to the country's banking sector. In the future there are plans to expand the area of financing to cover manufacturing and non-manufacturing industries.