Azernews.Az

By Nazrin Gadimova

Creating a Training Center for capital market participants will increase reliability in the Azerbaijan's equity market, Head of World Bank's Baku office Larisa Leshchenko said at the opening ceremony of the center on March 13.

"Most successful countries in the world achieve economic diversity by investing in three major components, namely institutional development, infrastructure, and human capital development," she said. "Opening a Training Center will combine the work on all these components."

She said the center's activity will allow for the development of new alternative ways of accessing finance in the country in the medium term.

"Today, one of the obstacles for economic diversification in the country is a limited access to finances. Now it is easy to get money for one year at high interest rates, but it is not what the real sector needs," Leshchenko said.

The head of WB's Baku office reiterated the bank's willingness to contribute to the government's efforts to develop the three pillars of economic diversification.

Speaking at the opening ceremony of the Center, Chairman of the Azerbaijani State Securities Committee Rufat Aslanli said the objectives of Azerbaijan's economic diversification set by President Aliyev for the next decade have created ambitious goals before the capital market.

"In this regard, the role and value of the Center, which opens today, will increase," he said.

He said the Center was established in the framework of the State program of development of capital markets approved by the President in 2011.

"It [the Center] was established based on economic calculation; it is not for commercial purposes. Its purpose is to meet the significant demand existing in the market. Therefore, I believe that the Center will not compete with other market participants, but will complement them," - said Aslanli.

"These services will benefit companies and entrepreneurs wishing to enter the capital markets. I will repeat: the Center does not pursue commercial objectives, and its pricing policy will be profitable and comfortable for all market participants," he added.

The Training Centre was established within the framework of the World Bank's project for the modernization of the capital market in Azerbaijan.