2024-05-06 18:00:52
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is interested in cooperation with Azerbaijan in the construction sector within the framework of sustainable procurement.
As Day.Az reports, ADB Deputy Director General and Chief Procurement Specialist of the Procurement, Portfolio and Financial Management Department Jeff Taylor said this in an interview with Trend on the sidelines of the bank’s annual meeting in Tbilisi.
“Sustainable procurement is an extremely broad topic. It can include governance, economic, social and, of course, very importantly, environmental aspects. ADB will seek opportunities to operate and support programs that are consistent with its project financing policies. It may go about greener buildings, construction materials, etc.,” he said.
Taylor noted that each country takes a different approach and sets different priorities depending on their geographic location and economic conditions.
“But I think that Azerbaijan has taken the most important step, which is to include sustainable development issues in national regulation and legislation. And this provides a very good basis for further moving forward in terms of how we can support environmental, social projects both in within the framework of ADB’s financial portfolio, and as part of supporting government reforms,” said the ADB Deputy Director General.
He further noted that green cement has a low carbon content, less carbon than traditional cement.
“We are piloting this in India as part of an ADB financing project. It depends on whether the market can respond to this demand. We have done deep research into the Indian market and found that manufacturers have been able to respond. One of the areas and ways in which we can to support this is to give an advantage in the evaluation process to the contractor who offers greener or greener materials.
We are using the example of green cement, and I believe that some global standards for it may soon be established,” Taylor explained.
He added that there are many opportunities in procurement to reduce carbon emissions.
“Another example could be, for example, energy efficient pumps or LED street lighting, and such examples, I believe, can be considered as nationally determined contributions. We will focus on the Azerbaijani program. Everything should be agreed with Azerbaijan, and not imposed by ADB Because sustainable development is a very broad topic and there needs to be a national responsibility, but the area that we are particularly interested in is construction. How do we reduce the impact and carbon emissions generated in the construction process? What’s particularly exciting about working with all of our clients is implementing this into regulatory standards and so on,” he said.
The ADB Deputy Director General noted that Azerbaijan has already taken the most important step to ensure a regulatory framework that ADB can support.
“But from the point of view of the procurement process, construction materials are of greatest interest. If we look at the heavy industry associated with construction, asphalt, cement, steel, aluminum, then it accounts for 30-40% of global emissions. Any reduction, even a small one, in These heavy industries have a very significant impact.
We conducted diagnostics for all 41 borrowing countries. We studied the regulatory framework and found, for example, in Azerbaijan, reforms of the procurement system. We are in the process of confirming with each client country that we have indeed presented an accurate picture. So far, out of 41 countries, 10 have said yes. We cannot discuss this with Azerbaijan at this time because we want to be sure that our diagnosis accurately reflects the current state of affairs in Azerbaijan since we are based in Manila. We need to make sure that the diagnosis reaches the correct conclusion. So, we are in the process of agreeing on them. Later this year we hope to be able to publish the results. And this will provide us with a list of priorities to work with each of our client countries. It is important that we align with national priorities for sustainable procurement to ensure maximum efficiency,” he explained.
Taylor noted that ADB is not going to require many elements to be completed because it won’t work.
“It shouldn’t be imposed from outside. But it could be, as I said, green cement, as well as social inclusion. It could be assessment and contracting mechanisms to encourage women’s participation in the supply chain. All of this will be determined by priorities Azerbaijan But we are very open to everything about sustainability and support it is not one process that you have to follow. We are also developing knowledge products and how you can assess sustainability of procurement and provide examples. and case studies, it is about providing a set of tools that are potentially usable in procurement, whether they are funded or not,” he concluded.
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