Samir Sharifov: 400 Million AZN Returned to International Bank

As part of measures to improve the International Bank of Azerbaijan (IBA), the return of troubled loans for AZN 400 million has been insured. This was said by the Minister of Finance Samir Sharifov in an interview with the Voice of America.

Asked about privatization of the IBA, Sharifov said the bank is undergoing the healing process. In particular, distressed assets are derived from the IBA balance and, together with collateral and the requirements for them they are transferred to CJSC Agrarkredit. This company manages the assets, which provides for their sale.

This process will take some time. After that, financial advisors will be invited, being authoritative international investment companies. Then IBA can be declared open to privatization, the minister said.

When asked about the volume of bad loans and what part of them has already been returned, Sharifov said special measures are taken in this area, with the involvement of law enforcement bodies, as there have been falsifications and fraud.

"As a result of these measures, the return of AZN 400 million has been ensured. Efforts to return the remaining amounts are in progress. If the bank itself does this, it will not be able to engage in normal banking activities. Therefore, it was considered appropriate to transfer troubled assets management to another bank," said Sharifov.

As co-chair of the Azerbaijani-American Intergovernmental Economic Commission, Sharifov commented on bilateral ties in this field. According to him, currently a number of projects is implemented in the regions together with the US Agency for International Development (USAID).

Answering the question of when the next session of the joint commission will take place, Sharifov said that Azerbaijan is ready for the meeting.

"We understand that the US side should make a counter offer. Now the issue of the US Chairman of the Commission is to be solved, and we believe that it will be resolved soon," said the minister.

Is the Azerbaijani side pleased with the commission's work? In answering this question, Sharifov said: "I think that at a time when the commission was active, we were satisfied with the level of economic cooperation."

With regard to international loans for the realization of the Southern Gas Corridor, then, according to Sharifov, 30-40% of the funding of such projects is carried out by the participants themselves, and the remaining funds are raised as loans. Azerbaijan has created the company Southern Gas Corridor specifically for this. In order to finance the share of the Azerbaijani side, the said company has attracted a financial advisor, the company LAZA. With this company a strategy of borrowing has been developed and it is working.

In particular, Eurobonds worth 1 billion USD have been successfully placed under the state guarantees in international financial markets at the beginning of the year.

  At the same time, negotiations are held with international financial institutions, e.g. the World Bank, the EBRD and the IMF, to attract additional funding. -06D-