Azerbaijan, Baku, August 1 / Trend I. Khalilova /
The Islamic Development Bank (IDB) plans to send in Azerbaijan expert group to Azerbaijan to collect information on construction project of a new 780-megawatt station Jenub (near Alibayramli thermal electric station) in the first half of August, the Azerbaijani government said on August 1.
"The government appealed to the bank with a request to allocate €215 million t finance project together with Arabic Funds. According to our information, IDB coordination group has considered and decided to send experts to Azerbaijan to collect information for further analysis of this issue.
Azerbaijani side is willing to draw additional foreign financing for energy project in 2009. But it will depend on IDB and Arabic Funds.
Azerenergy OJSC has already launched construction of electric station on the basis of the contract signed with Azerbaijani company AZENCO. Part of equipment has already been bought. These operations are carried out through a loan from a consortium of three banks - Bayerische landesbank, Societe Generale and Credit Suisse, allocated €300 million. Loan was granted under state guarantee for 10 years.
It was supposed that loan resources of bank consortium will cover half of the cost of operations connected with the construction of the station. Jenub station will operate both on gas and black oil. The rest part was planned to be covered owing to budget funds. But the government decided to draw other $ 215 million through foreign borrowings to be discussed with IDB mission.
At present, IDB approved financing of projects in Azerbaijan to the amount of $280 million. Azerbaijan cooperates with IDB. Azerbaijan is IDB member since 1991. Azerbaijani share holding in the bank's capital is 0.13 percent.
Islamic Development Bank was established in 1975. Since establishment authorized capital of the bank increased 15 times - from 2 billion Islamic Dinars (Islamic Dinar is IDB unit IDB. It is equivalent to one Special Drawing Right of the International Monetary Fund) to 30 billion Islamic dinars.
Do you have any feedback? Contact our journalist at: [email protected]