(MENAFN- Trend News Agency) BAKU, Azerbaijan, Aug.3. Azerbaijan's railway
sector, shipping sector and other infrastructure sectors are of
interest to the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB),
Konstantin Limitovskiy, Vice President of Investment Operations at
AIIB, said in an exclusive interview with trend .
According to him, Azerbaijan has been a respected founding
member and a client of AIIB since 2016, and the first project of
both sides did together was the Trans Anatolian Natural Gas
Pipeline (TANAP), for which Azerbaijan received $600 million
investment from the bank. Moreover, the bank also supported
Azerbaijan with a $100 million investment during the pandemic to
aid in COVID recovery efforts.
"I am here with a mission to identify new projects for
collaboration. Today we're discussing possibility in the second
phase of TANAP. The Ministry of Economy is our main counterpart
ministry in the government. Together, we've identified a potential
pipeline of very interesting projects in railways sector, shipping
sector and in variety of infrastructure sectors," he said.
Limitovskiy highlighted the significance of the Caucasus region
for AIIB particularly because of its strategic location, connecting
Europe and Asia.
“South Caucasus, especially, is a very important region for us
to promote regional cooperation. It is one of the priorities for
the bank. The reason is that it is a key bridge connecting Europe
and Asia, Europe and Middle East. So we really believe that this
region is going to play more important role in the both regional
and global logistics,” he said.
Limitovskiy emphasized that the bank aims to foster development
in the Asian region by financing sustainable and forward-looking
infrastructure projects and highlighted the importance of
attracting private sector capital to infrastructure
investments.
“To date, the bank's portfolio across all the regions is that
around 75-80 percent of the total is in sovereign lending and
investments, and the private sector is only 20-25 percent. It is
our target to make sure that by 2030, 50 percent of our investments
are the private sector investments, or non-sovereign investments,”
he said.
He also mentioned that the bank finances energy-related projects
in various countries.
“We are financing the solar and wind power plants projects.
Renewable energy sources financing is one of the key areas in the
private sector. For instance, we have one of the first wind farms
in Kazakhstan – Zhanatas. We finance 'Waste to Energy' projects. In
Türkiye, we have the modern energy efficient facilities, and
1,500-megawatt gas-fired project in Uzbekistan, in Sirdarya region.
There are lots of interesting projects that we are looking for in
private sector partnership. To qualify for our financing, the
project should align with our mission and mandate. We are looking
for green infrastructure, infrastructure supporting the critical
needs of the people. We look specifically and proactively for the
connectivity infrastructure,” said Limitovskiy.
According to him, connectivity should not be only transport
connectivity; it can also be digital connectivity or energy
connectivity.
“We would like to see private sector capital in co-investment
with our operations. These are the main highlights of the criteria.
Of course, the projects should bring the economic value to the
country and to the sponsors. So, they should be economically
available and financially sustainable,” he added.
"Normally, AIIB can inform the client whether it can finance the
project or not within the period of one week, if all the
information is ready. The bank has a lot of clients. The goal of
AIIB is to identify the company with same approach, same mentality
and help them to prepare the projects and implement them.
“The key principle is that we need to see the projects that are
contributing to decarbonization in the country, fostering
cooperation in the region and using the modern technology which
would last for a long period of time and have the possibility to
mobilize private sector capital,” he said.
Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank is one of the youngest
development banks. The bank was originally established in 2016 by
57 member countries. Today, the bank is owned by 106 shareholders.
AIIB is primarily dedicated to infrastructure investments, with a
specific focus on the Asian market.
The key objective of the bank is to foster the developments in
the Asian region through the financing of sustainable
infrastructure.
AIIB's mission, "Infrastructure for Tomorrow", focuses on
investments aligned with four priorities: Green Infrastructure,
Connectivity and Regional Cooperation, Technology-Enabled
Infrastructure, and Private Capital Mobilization.
Full video interview below:
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