Frankfurt Managers to Help Make Local Agriculture More Attractive

The Ministry of Agriculture of Azerbaijan has signed a contract with the Frankfurt School of Finance and Management to raise the quality of lending in this area within the framework of compliance with international standards.

According to the Ministry, representatives of Germany on the basis of the analysis of the real system under local conditions will make appropriate recommendations and offer new loan products in three main areas. For the purposes of effectiveness and efficiency of budget financing it is planned to coordinate state support with the promotion by international financial institutions and private investors. The second goal is to increase attractiveness of the agricultural industry for credit institutions on the basis of promoting agriculture, and the third objective is improving the competitiveness of this sector relative to other segments of the economy, improvement in credit and leasing products to meet the needs of borrowers.

The agreement was signed within the framework of the five-year project implemented jointly with the World Bank to strengthen the competitiveness of the agricultural industry, approved on September 30, 2013 in the amount of $ 53,250,000.

Azerbaijan has been a member of the World Bank since 1992. During the cooperation the WB allocated a total of $3 billion to the Government for the implementation of 55 projects. Currently its credit portfolio has reached $ 2 billion on 16 active projects. --17D-