2024-05-11 15:40:12
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has approved a package of technical assistance to Azerbaijan to prepare for COP29.
As Day.Az reports, ADB Director General for Central and Western Asia Evgeniy Zhukov said this in an exclusive interview with Trend on the sidelines of the Bank’s annual meeting in Tbilisi.
He noted that this is a special year for ADB and Azerbaijan, since this year marks the 25th anniversary of Azerbaijan’s accession to the Asian Development Bank in 1999.
“In addition, this year we are preparing our new country partnership strategy, which will cover the next five years from 2024 to 2028 and will identify areas of cooperation between ADB and Azerbaijan. We are very pleased that Azerbaijan has been chosen to host COP29, which will take place in Baku in November of this year. When this was announced in December last year, the ADB President sent a congratulatory letter to President Ilham Aliyev and offered ADB support to the Azerbaijani government,” Zhukov said.
The ADB Director General recalled that about three weeks ago he had the opportunity to visit Baku together with ADB colleagues working on climate change issues to discuss specific areas of possible cooperation in this area.
“We had the opportunity to discuss this with Azerbaijani Finance Minister Samir Sharifov, who is the Governor of ADB, and we had a productive meeting with COP29 President-designate, Environment Minister Mukhtar Babayev.
Since then, we have already approved a technical assistance package that will help the country build capacity to conduct COP-related negotiations and host the event itself. This is a kind of assistance to the country in preparing for the COP. Of course, we will be happy to discuss any further areas of cooperation,” added the ADB Director General.
Support for Azerbaijan’s green agenda
“We are also helping the country develop and implement more green energy projects to demonstrate to the world that Azerbaijan is serious about the climate change agenda. Two years ago, ADB invested in the largest solar power plant in the Caucasus. It is a 230-megawatt plant. Masdar in Alyat, which I also had a chance to visit. This is a very modern power plant, and a step towards realizing the government’s desire to implement the “strategy 30″ by 2030, which means that by this year the country should be able to produce 30 percent of all energy from renewable sources,” he said.
Zhukov noted that the ADB is discussing with Azerbaijan, as well as with the private sector, further opportunities for investing in solar energy projects.
“I hope that later this year we will make more specific announcements on this. But in general we are discussing opportunities with the country to invest in offshore wind projects. We are also piloting a floating solar power project. We are placing panels on a lake or on any reservoir and thus produce energy. We have a small project with a capacity of 100 kW, which is currently being implemented on one of the lakes in Baku. Let’s see if it works, if we can still work on it,” he said.
Zhukov added that ADB is also working with the Azerbaijani government to decarbonize the transport sector.
“For example, we have an ongoing project and we will be providing additional assistance in electrifying parts of the North-South railway project. We are happy to work on additional such projects in the future,” he said.
The ADB CEO noted that the bank is a strong proponent of regional cooperation, as it is probably one of the few multilateral development banks (MDBs) with regional cooperation included in its charter.
“As for Central Asia and the Caucasus, we established the Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation (CAREC) Program in the early 2000s. Since then, total investments in regional cooperation, including connectivity, have exceeded $50 billion. Of course, research on the project continues Black Sea cable running from Azerbaijan to Georgia, from the Black Sea to Romania and the rest of the European Union. A feasibility study is currently being carried out. We hope that it will be tentatively completed by the middle or end of this year. If the study shows that the project. We will implement it, we will be happy to take part in it. This is a very large-scale project, and if it is implemented, I think that many international financial institutions will be able to take part in it. In addition, a few days ago in Tashkent, the governments of Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan signed a preliminary one. a memorandum of understanding on a project for a possible submarine cable crossing the Caspian Sea, from Uzbekistan to Kazakhstan and to Azerbaijan along the so-called green energy corridor. Uzbekistan is investing quite a lot in renewable energy production, solar and wind, in the western parts of the country, while most of the economic base is actually located in the east of Uzbekistan. We think these projects have the potential to produce green energy that can then be supplied through this proposed green corridor. But we believe that this will require large investments,” he said.
Zhukov noted that since Azerbaijan joined the ADB in 1999, the bank has provided an assistance package totaling $4.2 billion.
“But most of this currently falls on the public sector. And the amount that falls on
the private sector is only about $50 million. This is important lending. For example, the $21 million project we did two years ago in which we helped build a 230-megawatt solar power plant is very efficient. But in a country like Azerbaijan, which is an upper-middle income country, we see more opportunities for direct investment in the private sector by ADB with other partners, but without government guarantees, which means that we will not increase public debt. Another aspect is that many people call COP29 the financial COP. We are therefore very interested in working with the government and other international financial institutions to develop more innovative ways to address the challenges posed by climate change, which will require very significant investment,” he said.
Details of the new country strategy
“We are preparing a new partnership strategy with the country. But I must say that the main agenda of this strategy will be to combat the consequences of climate change and help Azerbaijan decarbonize the economy and increase the share of renewable energy sources. So, no matter what sectors we We are working, this is a comprehensive agenda for ADB not only in Azerbaijan, but throughout the Asia-Pacific region. In general, ADB has committed to invest $100 billion by 2030 in this program,” he said.
Transport sector
“But if you look at the sectors, we also want to work more on transportation, continue to expand our cooperation with Azerbaijan Railways, because there are many unfinished tasks for the rehabilitation of the entire network,” Zhukov said.
He noted that ADB also hopes for successful negotiations between Azerbaijan and Armenia, since once a peace agreement is reached, this will allow the country to unlock an additional transport corridor and better connect Azerbaijan and the region with the world.
“There is a fairly old railway that runs from the southern part of Azerbaijan through Armenia to Nakhchivan. Therefore, if a peace agreement and other agreements are reached, we will be very happy to invest in the restoration of this network, but, of course, in accordance with the priority decisions of the Azerbaijani government “, he added.
Cooperation in the field of education
“Another area we will be working on is education. We have been discussing with the government for some time the possibility of improving technical education in Azerbaijan, because you need to upskill your young workforce before the end of the 21st century. We hope to provide investment in this area “The sooner the better. And overall, as I’ve highlighted before, we’ll probably be looking at shifting our focus a little bit more between public sector investment and private sector investment,” he concluded.
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