BAKU, Azerbaijan, November 14. The Azerbaijani
Ministry of Finance and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) have
discussed the new Country Partnership Strategy for Azerbaijan
covering 2025-2029, Trend reports via the ministry.
The meeting took place between Azerbaijan’s Minister of Finance,
Sahil Babayev, and Masato Kanda, President of the Asian Development
Bank (ADB), during Kanda’s inaugural official visit to the
country.
Minister Babayev underscored the significance of Azerbaijan’s
enduring and productive partnership with the ADB, highlighting that
under the leadership of President Ilham Aliyev, the country is
steadily advancing toward its objectives of economic
diversification, sustainable development, and regional leadership.
He further emphasized that collaboration with international
financial institutions plays a crucial role in this process.
The Minister expressed high regard for the long-standing
cooperation between Azerbaijan and the ADB, noting that initiatives
undertaken through loans, grants, and technical assistance have
made substantial contributions to Azerbaijan’s development
agenda.
Briefing on the current economic situation and macroeconomic
indicators of Azerbaijan, Babayev said that positive development
dynamics are observed in the country’s economy, especially in the
non-oil sector, strategic foreign exchange reserves are at a high
level, and public debt is at a fairly low level.
The new strategy covers priorities such as the development of
the non-oil sector of the economy, increasing climate resilience,
digital and green transformation, as well as strengthening the
private sector.
The parties held extensive discussions on the main priority
areas of cooperation, including the expansion of the Baku Metro,
projects to be implemented in the areas of transport
infrastructure, drinking water supply, water loss reduction, and
stormwater management in Baku and surrounding areas, as well as
modernization of railway infrastructure, public-private partnership
projects, and regional connectivity initiatives.
In this context, the focus was also on ADB’s integration into
strategic regional projects such as the Middle Corridor and the
Green Energy Corridor.
The meeting highly appreciated Azerbaijan’s contributions to the
Asian Development Fund (ADF), which supports ADB mainly in
low-income countries to reduce poverty and improve the quality of
life since 2021.
The meeting stressed that this support is an indicator of the
importance Azerbaijan attaches to the policy of solidarity with the
least developed countries and the promotion of inclusive regional
development.
Kanda stated that ADB highly values Azerbaijan as an important
and reliable partner and is ready to support the country’s
development priorities, including further expanding cooperation in
the areas of regional connectivity, digital transformation, water
management, and sustainable infrastructure.
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