Azerbaijan, Baku / corr. Trend I.Khalilova / The 9th annual meeting of the Board of Managers of the Black Sea Bank for Trade and Development (BBTD) continued its work in Chisinau last weekend.
The Azerbaijani Ministry of Economic Development announced that the Azerbaijani Economic Development Minister Heydar Babayev, and the Azerbaijani Finance Minister, Samir Sharfov represented Azerbaijan at the gathering.
Mikayil Jabbarov, the Azerbaijani Minister for Economic Development, stated earlier that the gathering will focus on the representation of small shareholders - a group of shareholders from five countries. Azerbaijan was also represented in this group.
So far, the biggest shareholders of the bank - Russia, Turkey and Greece, as well as medium shareholders - Bulgaria, Romania and Ukraine, were represented by the bank's management.
The rest of the meeting will be dedicated to discussions of the future of the bank, in connection with the increase of rivalry in the region, expansion of other financial institutions active here and equipment of the BBTD for further global competitiveness. All these issues are referred to as BBTD's operation strategy.
Some countries, including Georgia, plan to include in the agenda the idea of opening a regional office of the BBTD. "Currently, the BBTD only has a regional office in Salonniki," Jabbarov added.
Within the framework of BBTD's strategy the issues on increase of its capital and attraction of new members might be mulled over. At present there are several international institutions, including the German Bank for Development KFW, which has joined the Bank with observer status.
The BBTD was established on 1 June 1999. The previous meeting of the Board of Managers was held in Baku on 11-12 June 2006.