WB announces priorities on Karabakh

The World Bank is preparing a new partnership document on cooperation with Azerbaijan and will soon begin discussions with the Azerbaijani government, the World Bank Country Manager for Azerbaijan, Sarah Michael, told journalists.

According to Michael, it is very much based on Azerbaijan 2030 Vision, and the Bank builds this new strategy in line with the government's priorities:

"We've been supporting the government with the study. We are in the process of developing our new country partnership framework in the next several months, which is the five-year plan for the World Bank in Azerbaijan and our partnership. So in the next few months, we'll be listening to the government to see which priorities they want us to focus on, both in terms of investment and then which priorities they want us to focus on in terms of knowledge-sharing and capacity-building.

"So, it will all take the next few months, there are so many different priorities in the country, whether in terms of building human capital, in terms of supporting the private sector, in terms of recovery and reconstruction in Karabakh, including clean energy. So, we'll have to see there are many different partners that the government works and which areas they want us to focus on."

While the manager commented on the issue of the World Bank's support for the released territories of Azerbaijan, she said:

"Right now, there is some research, it's still very early days, of course, because there is huge imparity for the demining, but we'll be glad to support the government as they request us to support reconstruction and recovery in Karabakh, we think there is a tremendous opportunity both for the integration of the area into national systems but also to grow regional trade and regional connectivity. So, we'll be very glad to work with the government on that.

"We have many projects, but we have to wait until the government tells us which one they want us to work on. We worked very much on the water in the past, and now we are in the process of hearing their priorities for the new framework. So, maybe we include water, but I don't know yet because we haven't had those discussions. We are working on employment support and jobs training, we are working on connectivity and secondary road networks, and we also do a lot of work on a wide range of things from supporting the digitalization of the healthcare system to road safety, to green energy, to smart villages, the inclusion of disabled people, so we really work on so many things, and those we'll continue throughout this year and next several years."

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