Baku Today
Dec 29 2004

Azeri Refugees to Get IDB Assistance

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by Habib Shaikh, Arab News 29/12/2004 06:34

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.