Azerbaijan needs to make some changes to the legislation to further develop the private sector, said Keiko Honda, executive vice president and chief executive officer of the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA) of the World Bank Group (WB), in an interview with Trend.

Azerbaijan has a good infrastructure and can more actively attract private sector to the country, said Honda, who paid a one-day visit to Baku.

This is not just about private financing, she noted adding that it is necessary to slightly change the legal framework in order to improve the cooperation between the state and private sector and attract independent electricity producers.

Honda believes that this step will further develop the private sector and increase the volume of private investments in the country.

Director for Operations at the MIGA Sarvesh Suri, for his part, told Trend that the main goal of the Azerbaijani government is to diversify the country’s economy, and the WB is ready to support Azerbaijan in this issue.

Azerbaijan pays great attention to the development of agriculture and various infrastructure projects in order to diversify its economy, noted Suri.

Moreover, Azerbaijan today is actively developing the sphere of transportation and freight traffic, he added.

He said also that the World Bank is ready to support Azerbaijan in these issues.

Azerbaijan joined the World Bank in 1992. As part of the cooperation with Azerbaijan, MIGA provided guarantees for loans to Azercell, Baku Coca-Cola Bottlers, Kocbank Azerbaijan (now YapiKredi Bank Azerbaijan) and for other companies in different years.

The latest project, in which the agency participated, was the provision of a loan guarantee for the construction of the Trans Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline (TANAP) that is a part of the Southern Gas Corridor (SGC) project.

In 2017, MIGA supported private investments worth $4.7 billion in developing countries.

MIGA has supported more than 800 projects since 1998.