Baku, Azerbaijan, May 2
By Sara Israfilbayova – Trend:
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) offers Azerbaijan to promote economic diversification by supporting competitiveness and effective management, Trend reports referring to the EBRD’s strategy for Azerbaijan covering 2019-2024.
The strategy also states that it is important to strengthen the "resilience of the financial sector including capitalization and create a sustainable funding structure and sound risk management practices" in the banking sector.
The government of Azerbaijan should also "advocate restructuring and improved corporate governance of International Bank of Azerbaijan, including potential (pre-)privatisation financing and/or equity," the strategy reads.
EBRD experts believe that attention should also be paid to the provision of "dedicated credit lines and risk-sharing frameworks to partner banks to encourage lending to underserved segments and areas (e.g. with special focus on women, energy efficiency, small-scale agribusiness), complemented by assistance focusing on risk management and corporate governance," as well as assisting in the "development and deployment of an agriculture credit scoring tool for financial institutions".
The EBRD strategy also indicated the need to expand the range of non-banking financial products and services, and proposed to support the development of an active and efficient money market and the improvement of the regulatory framework for financing in local currency (including issuing bonds) and hedging instruments.
The EBRD is a leading investor in Azerbaijan. To date, the Bank has invested almost 3.3 billion euro in various sectors including energy, infrastructure, banking, industry and commerce.
Follow the author on Twitter: @IsrafilbekovaS