BSTDB in Azerbaijan prefers medium entrepreneurship in the rural areas

The Black Sea Trade and Development Bank (BSTDB) published  a strategy for investing in Azerbaijan, designed for 2015-2018 years. According to the official website, each year to the economy of this country it is planned to allocate  23-35 million  Euros within 2-3 projects. "That is to say, over the next four years can be concluded from 8 to 12 agreements in the amount of about  92-138 million Euro. The strategy notes that the bank hopes to find suitable partners for the development of leasing, as intends to use this product not only to finance capital expenditures of SMEs, but also for other companies as an effective financing tool to promote regional trade.

 The BSTDB is also committed to increasing the number of financial intermediaries and will consider the possibility to take part in the share capital of certain financial institutions and funds. The Bank will avoid a new mortgage financing, giving priority to agricultural credit to improve food security and social lending. "We are working with a number of financial intermediaries that provide trade finance products and medium-term lending to micro, small and medium enterprises, and these activities will continue to have priority," noted in the strategy.

The BSTDB was founded in 1996, and began operations three years later. The head office of the bank is in Salonik. The share of Azerbaijan's participation in its capital (just 11 countries)  is  5%.

The investment portfolio of the bank for official Baku is $166 million 978 thousand on 32 signed  loan agreements. The total amount  of 34 credits approved by the Board of Directors of the BSTDB  is $214 million and 348 thousand. As of January 1, this year in Azerbaijan were approved 21 projects amounting to 172.8 million Euro. --17D--