World Bank outlines areas of analytical services
Analytical services, which the World Bank (WB) will provide for Azerbaijan, will be associated with the diversification of growth in such areas as agriculture, education, improving the efficiency of public institutions, improvement of the business environment, WB acting country manager for Azerbaijan Saida Bagirli, told Trend news agency on Monday.
She noted that World Bank participation in the macroeconomic research of the Azerbaijani government is also possible.
"We are working with the government on the creation of a multi-year collaborative research programme (Joint Economic Research Programme - JERP). This will allow the government to order the bank to implement any specific research. We will continue to invest in and provide some technical support for our analytical work in Azerbaijan. However, there are a lot of areas and topics that are beyond the scope of what we can finance. This is a new product of the bank," Bagirli said.
The Azerbaijani Government and the World Bank are developing a framework agreement to start work within JERP. The first three-year cycle of the program is pre-planned at $5 million.
"The framework agreement is being prepared. We finished the final version and presented it to the government," Bagirli said.
This mechanism will allow Azerbaijan to obtain financial leverage on consultants, the government told Trend earlier.
Azerbaijan is a member of the World Bank since 1992.