EBRD president starts touring South Caucasus from Azerbaijan

President of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development Odile Renaud-Basso plans to visit Azerbaijan on September 11-13 as part of a tour of the South Caucasus countries, the EBRD Resident Office in Azerbaijan told Report.

“After taking office at the end of 2020, this is the first visit of Odile Renaud-Basso. The five-day visit of the EBRD president to the South Caucasus region begins with Azerbaijan, then Odile Renaud-Basso will travel to Georgia and Armenia,” the representative office said.

The bank’s office did not rule out the possibility of signing loan agreements, but this issue is still in the process of being agreed, as are the scheduled meetings.

Head of the EBRD Resident Mission in Azerbaijan Kamola Makhmudova told Report earlier that the main focus of the visit will be Azerbaijan’s important role in food security, transport communications and energy.

The EBRD approved a $51 million long-term loan in May for the development, construction and operation of a solar photovoltaic power plant with an installed capacity of 230 MW on a site located 9 km northwest of Alat settlement in eastern Azerbaijan (the Alat Solar project - a solar power plant Garadagh).

The total cost of the project is $250 million. The project is being implemented by PJSC Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company (Masdar).

The EBRD will also provide a long-term loan of up to $105 million for the development, construction and operation of a 240 MW wind farm located in Khizi and Absheron districts. Loan approval by the EBRD Board of Directors is expected on July 20. The total cost of the project is $300 million. The borrower of the loan will be ACWA Power Azerbaijan Renewable Energy, a limited liability company established in Azerbaijan by ACWA Power, which is the sponsor of the project.

The EBRD is also negotiating with Azerbaijan Caspian Shipping Company CJSC (ASCO) for a loan without a government guarantee.

A loan of up to $4 million (€3.9 million) has been also recently approved for the construction of a 5,000-ton warehouse near Baku. The loan was provided to the Azerbaijani logistics company W&E Forward and Alat Bay (Alat Bay Industrial Development LLC AFEZCO). The total cost of the project is $7.362 million.

The project is expected to facilitate the flow of transit and import cargo by reducing the cost and time of delivery between the Black Sea ports of Georgia and Baku.

The EBRD has invested a total of 3.318 billion euros in 181 projects in Azerbaijan to date. The share of the private sector in the EBRD investment portfolio is 12%.

There are 33 active projects in the bank’s portfolio in Azerbaijan. The portfolio for these projects is 833 million euros (an increase of 19 million euros).