Azer-Press (Azerbaijan)
10 November 2004

Baku - The government of Azerbaijan and the IFAD are going to sign an agreement about financing the North Development Project to cover the northern regions of Azerbaijan before the end of November this year.

Azer-press learned from the director of the Private Agriculture Development Agency of Azerbaijan Vaghif Husseinov that a delegation to be headed by First Deputy Prime Minister of Azerbaijan Abbas Abbasov will leave for Rome to sign the agreement there.

'The project will be implemented in the north-eastern part of Azerbaijan; the costs are estimated at approximately $30 mn and $10 mn of that will be spent on melioration, $6 mn on founding the associations of water users and $5 mn on lending; the balance will be spent on the project team', Vaghif Husseinov mentioned.

Azer-press learned from Abbas Abbasov that the practical activities may start as soon as before the end of this year.

In the opinion of Vaghif Husseinov, it may take two months to legalise the project; a tender for lending agency will be announced for banks then.

The IFAD had agreed to lend up to $25 mn towards the costs of the planned operations in Khizi, Siyazan, Devechi and Absheron provinces. The IFAD will lend the money for forty years with a ten-year grace period and under the annual rate of interest equalling 0.75%.

It should be mentioned that this will be the third project for the IFAD to undertake in Azerbaijan since 1996. The IFAD and the World Bank implemented the joint farm privatisation project beginning on 20 May 1997; the total budget of that project equalled $28.8 mn and the contribution by the IFAD equalled $14.7 mn. The project covered six provinces of Azerbaijan.

The credit agreement connected with the project of development of the agriculture in the highlands and the mountainous regions of Azerbaijan was signed on 27 November 2000; the total budget of that project equals $10 mn and the IFAD contributed $9 mn.