Vice-President: ADB working on supporting public-private partnership

ADB is working together with the Azerbaijani government in establishing a public-private partnership (PPP) development center, Ingrid van Wees, Vice-President for Finance and Risk Management, told Report.

"We commend the Government’s focus on PPPs and, as I know, it has drafted a concept paper that provides an overarching vision and policy statement on PPPs. ADB is working together with the government in establishing a PPP development center, as well as in supporting PPP project preparatory and transaction advisory efforts. Our work with private sector in Azerbaijan has intensified in the past year after the government’s strong macro-stabilization and structural reform efforts. We intend to use the proceeds to finance the needs of the private sector companies. But our ongoing activities are much wider, including the promotion of PPPs, trade finance, agrobusiness, tourism, renewable energy. ADB has Trade Facilitation Program (TFP) to support export and import operations. The TFP brings a lot of benefits not only to the banks and their clients, but also to the country economies. Some of the local banks have expressed their interest in participating in this program and we are considering their requests. To address financial inclusion and short-term financing gaps, ADB is seeking to support micro, small and medium businesses (especially those involved in non-cyclical sectors such as food production and processing) via eligible financial intermediaries, including nonbank financial institutions," she said.