BAKU, Azerbaijan, January 7. The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) spoke this week about its interest in studying new infrastructure projects in Azerbaijan meeting the eligibility criteria in terms of the bank's policies and standards, Trend reports.
“These criteria cover a wide range of issues, from environmental, sustainability to procurement and finance. The list is extensive and each project requires careful evaluation,” head of the EBRD in Azerbaijan Kamola Makhmudova said.
“Therefore, upon receipt of such a request from the government, we’ll individually evaluate all opportunities, in coordination with other international financial institutions and subject to safe access to the project site. As we understand, the mining of Azerbaijani territories by Armenian armed groups [which weren’t fully withdrawn in violation of the trilateral statement signed between Azerbaijani, Armenian and Russian leaders after the 2020 second Karabakh war] still continues)," Makhmudova added.
Besides, according to the macroeconomic forecast published this week, in 2023 Azerbaijan's real GDP will amount to 117.3 billion manat ($69 billion) with an increase of 3.5 percent, and non-oil GDP - 73.3 billion manat ($43.1 billion).
It was also forecasted that expanding the diversification of the economy will be one of the main strategic economic priorities for the coming years. Due to the transformation of the main driver of economic growth from the oil sector to the non-oil/gas sector, a steady increase in the share of non-oil revenues in the State budget is expected to be achieved.
The Ministry of Finance projected that in 2023, the share of non-oil/gas sector in the structure of GDP will make up 69.2 percent, and the share of the oil and gas sector - 30.8 percent.
Along with the above, the ministry said that Azerbaijan allocated 2.65 billion manat ($1.5 billion) from its state budget for the state investment program for 2023, and 1.24 billion manat ($730 million) is envisaged to be allocated for financing under ‘economic activity’ item.