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EBRD First Vice President to visit Azerbaijan
Signing expected regarding key bank privatisation
Noreen Doyle, First Vice President of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, will deliver a keynote speech at the Oil and Gas Conference on Wednesday in Baku. During her two-day visit to Azerbaijan, she will also meet with Prime Minister Artur Rasidze and other government officials, as well as local and foreign business leaders and representatives from the international community based in Azerbaijan. Ms Doyle expects to discuss various EBRD operations, including the possible financing of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline, pre-privatisation activities of the International Bank of Azerbaijan and the development of an oil-spill contingency plan.
The EBRD is one of the largest investors in Azerbaijan, having committed ?325 million via 17 projects in the country. Ms Doyle will reiterate the Bank's support for ongoing economic reforms and continuing transition towards a market economy, noting in particular its plans to expand its private-sector activities in such areas as small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), oil and gas, the financial sector, as well as continuing support for public-sector activities, particularly focusing on key infrastructure development.
Ms Doyle expects to sign a memorandum regarding a pre-privatisation investment in the International Bank of Azerbaijan in accordance with the Presidential Decree of 17 April 2003. The EBRD will consider a 20 per cent equity stake in IBA, the country's largest bank, to help prepare it for full privatisation in 2004. The privatisation is key to strengthening Azerbaijan's banking sector, enhancing financial intermediation and promoting competition and corporate governance. The EBRD has a longstanding relationship with IBA, which is a recipient of an EBRD SME credit line and benefits from trade transaction guarantees under the EBRD's Trade Facilitation Programme.
Ms Doyle will also discuss how the EBRD, in response to the growing concern about the risk of pollution and spills associated with oil production and transport in the Caspian Sea, is mobilising donor funding to help develop Azerbaijan's National Oil Spill Contingency Plan. One approach - likely to be put into action next month - is to create a detailed programme for building Azerbaijan's oil-spill-response capacity and outlining actions and investments to improve the ability to prevent and combat oil spills and illegal waste discharges.
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