JEDDAH, 29 December 2004 — The Islamic Development Bank (IDB) is to assist Azerbaijan government in meeting some of the social needs of the country’s refugees, particularly in education, health, water supply and sanitation, in the territory occupied by Armenia.
Bank President Dr. Ahmad Muhammad Ali, who visited Azerbaijan, has promised that the IDB would “very soon” send a mission to identify priority areas to help the refugees.
Previously, the bank had allocated $1.5 million as grant to provide emergency assistance to these displaced people. It had also provided a loan of $10 million to finance schools, water supply, irrigation infrastructure and agriculture equipment for the benefit of the refugees.
Dr. Ali, who visited one of the refugee camps, also promised that the IDB would do its best to sensitize the international community on the tragedy of these displaced people.
Earlier, during a meeting with President Ilham Aliev in the capital Baku, the two focused on ways to enhance the “already excellent” cooperation between Azerbaijan and the IDB.
Azerbaijan authorities and the IDB president agreed to redouble efforts to promote intra-trade and intra-investment among member countries and also enhance their capacity to export to other countries. IDB expressed its readiness to assist in organizing exhibitions in the UAE and Germany to present their products and project their potentialities to investors in various sectors of Azerbaijan economy.
Since Azerbaijan joined the bank in 1992, IDB has provided it financing amounting to $130 million. The bank has also participated in the financing of several roads connecting Azerbaijan to the European markets. Currently, it is considering the possibility of participating in the construction of another section of the road linking the country to Europe (Yavlakh-Ganja), as well as the North-South corridor linking Azerbaijan to Iran.
The bank is giving special attention to the energy sector in the country, and is considering the possibility of participating in the connection of the energy grid of Azerbaijan and the grid of Russia and Iran, facilitating the export and import of energy from Azerbaijan to the two countries.
