ADB to assist in developing Azerbaijan's energy supply
By Amina Nazarli
Azerbaijan urged international organizations, such as the Asian Development Bank and the World Bank, to render financial assistance to improve the country's energy supply.
The country has requested some $750 million from the ADB.
Recently, the Asian Development Bank approved a business plan for operations in Azerbaijan in 2015-2017, allowing the country to receive funds from the bank only as ordinary capital resources for water, transport and energy projects.
The project related to the energy supply, planned together with Azerishig OJSC, will cover the whole country and consists of three tranches, ADB official office in Baku told Trend.
The first tranche is going to be used in the areas with the worst energy supply situation.
The total cost of the project is expected to stand at $1 billion, $250 million of which Azerbaijan will allocate from its own funds.
Azerbaijan also urged the WB to render financial assistance in the amount of $250-300 million. A final decision on the matter is expected to be discussed in a few months, the WB o representative office in Baku told Trend.
Thus, ADB will finance the "Power distribution improvement project" in Azerbaijan in 2015-2016. A total $332 million will be allocated for the project implementation. Some $250 million of this amount will account the ADB loan and Azerbaijan's own funds, the ADB business plan on Azerbaijan for 2015-2017 said.
ADB was founded in 1966 and has 67 members. The bank's headquarters is located in Manila, the capital of the Philippines. Azerbaijan became an ADB member in 1999. The country's share in the bank's capital sat 0.5 percent.
Since 1999, Azerbaijan has received 20 project loans, and 1 project grant totaling $1.64 billion, including 6 non-sovereign loans of $143 million, and $14.4 million in technical assistance grants to support its development programs.
ADB's leading shareholders are Japan and the United States (31.2 percent of the total share capital), India and China (12.8 percent), Australia, South Korea and Canada (16 percent) and so on.
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Amina Nazarli is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @amina_nazarli
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