BAKU, Azerbaijan, October 21. The European
Union (EU) recommends Azerbaijan to establish ExImBank targeting
small and medium-sized enterprises, reads the “Trade Study Report –
Trade Sector Development in Azerbaijan: Policies, Constraints and
Opportunities”, issued by the EU.
According to the findings of the study, a significant proportion
of both goods and services exporters suffer from the limited
availability or inaccessibility of trade finance services. Yet, the
report shows that financial institutions such as the European Bank
for Reconstruction and Development, Islamic Development Bank, World
Bank, Asian Development Bank, and Black Sea Trade and Development
Bank provide trade finance instruments to Azerbaijani
exporters.
“Since trade-finance resources allocated by international
financial institutions are administered through commercial banks,
there is a possibility that these funds may be diverted to purposes
other than export financing. To this end, strengthening monitoring
of the appropriate use of trade finance funds and organizing
awareness-raising programs for exporters in this area would be
beneficial. In the context of the transformation of KOBİA and
AZPROMO, it would be beneficial to establish a financial instrument
in the form of an Azerbaijan Export Credit Insurance and Factoring
Fund or an ExImBank,” the report reads.
The authors of the report believe that this fund could provide
export contract insurance, pre-export financing, and factoring
services at low interest rates to SMEs exporting non-oil products
and services.
