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Azerbaijan and World Bank sign new loan agreement - PHOTO

Azerbaijan and World Bank sign new loan agreement - <font color=red>PHOTO</font>

19 October 2012 13:04 (UTC +04:00)

Baku. Vahab Rzayev â€“ APA-Economics. Today, Azerbaijani government and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) signed loan agreement in Baku on funding of Second Rural Investment Project. The document was signed by Minister of Agriculture Ismat Abasov and World Bankâ€™s country manager on Azerbaijan Larisa Leshchenko.

Abasov noted that cooperation between Azerbaijan and WB started in 1996. Thereat, WB funded the Farm Privatization Project (FPP) in Azerbaijan. The project was completed in 2001. Then, during 2005-2008, the Bank started to finance Rural Investment Project (AZRIP) in the country and in 2009 it involved extra funds to the project.

Abasov said that realization of Second Rural Investment Project aims at access to community-based rural infrastructure, increase the use and broaden economic activity of rural families.

The minister stressed that new project supports the State Program on Poverty Reduction and Sustainable Development (2008-2015), which has several purposes such as achieve strengthening of entrepreneurship and dynamic development of economy by suing potential of regions, improvement of living standard: â€˜This project will be completed successfullyâ€™.

Leshchenko said that the signed project would be successful for Azerbaijan, it would contribute to development of agriculture and rural areas: â€˜It will serve improvement of living standard of 1.5 mln people.

Note that, the project consists of 3 components: establishment of community infrastructure in rural areas, technical support to rural infrastructure, project management and monitoring of results. The Second Rural Investment Project will operate in Duzen-Shirvan, Mughan-Salyan, Nakhchvan, North, North-Western zones.