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IFC completes ACALF Advisory Services Project in Azerbaijan

22 April 2009 16:09 (UTC +04:00)

Baku. Nijat Mustafayev â€“ APA-Economics. IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, is completing Azerbaijan and Central Asia (ACALF) Advisory Services Project on April 30, said Anastasia Marina, Project Manager at IFC.

She said Azerbaijan leasing Companies Association will continue this work and IFC will launch new projects on mortgage lending, corporate governance, business enabling environment improvement and other fields.

To assist in growth of the leasing market in the region, IFC established an internal facility of $30 million to finance lessors in Azerbaijan and Central Asia (ACALF).

In a major effort to strengthen the leasing industry in Azerbaijan, Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan; in 2005, IFC in partnership with the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) launched the ACALF Advisory Services activity â€“ a three-and-half-year project that aimed to improve private sector economic growth, increase access to finance and create employment through the development of leasing.

ACALF Advisory Services Project has provided assistance to 13 participating financial institutions (PFIs) engaged in financial leasing in the region. At the industry level, the IFC project has worked to improve the business climate by removing burdensome legal and regulatory obstacles that hinder the viability of leasing. At the institutional level, the project has strived to build capacity and strengthen systems within the individual financial institutions.