Cooperation between the Islamic Corporation for the Development of the Private Sector and Azerbaijan in the field of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) is expanding, with new financing agreements being signed.
According to Report, this was stated by Ulan Abylgaziev during a panel discussion held as part of the 51st Annual Meeting of the Islamic Development Bank Group in Baku.
"We have signed a number of important agreements with our partners from Azerbaijan, including the Azerbaijan Business Development Fund. These agreements are aimed at further expanding support for small and medium-sized enterprises. We support Shariah-compliant financing principles and are expanding governments' capacity to support a larger number of SMEs," he said.
Abylgaziev noted that the capital provided by ICD generally comes in two main forms. The first is trade finance, which addresses short-term working capital needs, while the second is SME financing, which is primarily focused on capital expenditures and is usually provided for periods of three to five years.
He added that ICD also invests in financing infrastructure projects with maturities of 10, 15, and even 20 years.