Finance

Finance

IFC holds a seminar on â€œCorporate Governance in Microfinance Institutions: Azerbaijan and International Practiceâ€ in Baku

11 March 2009 09:32 (UTC +04:00)

Baku. Nijat Mustafayev â€“ APA-Economics. IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, and Azerbaijan Microfinance Association has held a seminar entitled â€œCorporate Governance in Microfinance Institutions: Azerbaijan and International Practiceâ€ as part of the proposed Azerbaijan Corporate Governance Project.
Caroline Bright, Azerbaijan Corporate Governance Project Manager, underlined the importance of the knowledge of corporate governance for all financial institutions, adding that it enhances their operations and increase ability to attract financing and investment.
Philipp Keller, Deputy Regional Director of the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO), said the SECO has since 2005 supported the project to raise the corporate governance to international standards.
According to him, investors above all pay attention to good governance in a company especially amid the global financial crisis.
Vusal Eynullayev, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Azerbaijan Microfinance Association, noted that the global financial crisis made it difficult for companies to attract funding. According to him, investors make their decision on the basis of a companyâ€™s profitability which can not be high without good corporate governance.
In 2005, IFC launched the Corporate Governance Project to improve practices at Azerbaijani joint-stock companies and banks, helping them enhance operations and increase their ability to attract financing and investment. To date, the project has trained 360 joint-stock companies and banks and enabled clients to attract about $18 million in investments due to improved practices. It also helped the government develop four pieces of legislation, which have been adopted, and developed a model course that was adopted by five local universities. The project is supported with funds from the government of Switzerlandâ€™s State Secretariat for Economic Affairs.