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AZERBAIJAN TURNS FROM INTERNATIONAL BORROWER TO LENDER
EurasiaNet.org, NY
June 19 2013
June 19, 2013 - 5:35am, by Giorgi Lomsadze
Energy-rich Baku could end up lending a helping hand to next-door
enemy, Armenia, via a World Bank program which gives loans to the
world's neediest nations, including Armenia.
Last week, Azerbaijan's Central Bank Governor Elman Rustamov told
World Bank Vice President Joachim von Amsberg that the South Caucasus
state is interested in contributing as a donor, Azerbaijani news
outlets reported.
Azerbaijan this year shed all of its $300 million debt to the
International Development Association (IDA), a World Bank mechanism
offering the poor a chance to borrow their way to prosperity via low
or no-interest loans. Armenia along with fellow Soviet alumni Georgia,
Moldova, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan are on the list of
IDA aid recipients.
Just yesterday, Azerbaijan, too, was one of that crowd, but it has
now gone middle-class with a per-capita GDP of $10,700, an indicator
far above it ex-Soviet comrades in the neighborhood, bar Russia.
Among the various signs of its newfound wealth, Azerbaijan has
contributed $5 million to a fund-raising project for the Palestinian
territories, purchases weapons from Israel, and is witnessing the
make-over of Baku into a glittering, skyscraper-studded metropolis.
With Azerbaijan's international prominence growing, overseas
development funds might seem a natural next-step. At this stage,
though, the possibility of such funds indirectly aiding Armenia is
only theoretical.
With Armenia and Azerbaijan essentially at war over the disputed
territory of Nagorno Karabakh, Azerbaijan may, perhaps, not necessarily
be eager to lend a helping hand to Armenia. Although the State Oil
Company of the Azerbaijani Republic recently offered to send gas
to Armenia (to relieve pressure from a price hike in the cost of
Russian gas), the offer was largely interpreted as more about PR
than substance.
It was not immediately clear whether Azerbaijan could track where
any donations to the IDA would go.
That said, nothing in Armenia's recent history suggests that it would
be willing to let bygones be bygones and receive such assistance. Even
though saddled with roughly $4.2 billion in debt.
http://www.eurasianet.org/node/67142
EurasiaNet.org, NY
June 19 2013
June 19, 2013 - 5:35am, by Giorgi Lomsadze
Energy-rich Baku could end up lending a helping hand to next-door
enemy, Armenia, via a World Bank program which gives loans to the
world's neediest nations, including Armenia.
Last week, Azerbaijan's Central Bank Governor Elman Rustamov told
World Bank Vice President Joachim von Amsberg that the South Caucasus
state is interested in contributing as a donor, Azerbaijani news
outlets reported.
Azerbaijan this year shed all of its $300 million debt to the
International Development Association (IDA), a World Bank mechanism
offering the poor a chance to borrow their way to prosperity via low
or no-interest loans. Armenia along with fellow Soviet alumni Georgia,
Moldova, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan are on the list of
IDA aid recipients.
Just yesterday, Azerbaijan, too, was one of that crowd, but it has
now gone middle-class with a per-capita GDP of $10,700, an indicator
far above it ex-Soviet comrades in the neighborhood, bar Russia.
Among the various signs of its newfound wealth, Azerbaijan has
contributed $5 million to a fund-raising project for the Palestinian
territories, purchases weapons from Israel, and is witnessing the
make-over of Baku into a glittering, skyscraper-studded metropolis.
With Azerbaijan's international prominence growing, overseas
development funds might seem a natural next-step. At this stage,
though, the possibility of such funds indirectly aiding Armenia is
only theoretical.
With Armenia and Azerbaijan essentially at war over the disputed
territory of Nagorno Karabakh, Azerbaijan may, perhaps, not necessarily
be eager to lend a helping hand to Armenia. Although the State Oil
Company of the Azerbaijani Republic recently offered to send gas
to Armenia (to relieve pressure from a price hike in the cost of
Russian gas), the offer was largely interpreted as more about PR
than substance.
It was not immediately clear whether Azerbaijan could track where
any donations to the IDA would go.
That said, nothing in Armenia's recent history suggests that it would
be willing to let bygones be bygones and receive such assistance. Even
though saddled with roughly $4.2 billion in debt.
http://www.eurasianet.org/node/67142