OREANDA-NEWS. November 09, 2010. Success of national economic development of Azerbaijan in recent years is recognized by the international financial institutions, experts, etc. And we have become accustomed to the fact that our country is increasingly becoming the host of all kinds of summits, international conferences and forums at various levels, reported the press-centre of IBA.

Conducting of III Baku International Conference of CIS member states “Financial institutions - the basis of structural modernization of the economies of CIS member states” is very important to define the creative challenges and constructive ideas in post-crisis period”, said Senior Vice President of Finance and Banking Council of CIS, Chairman of the International Bank of Azerbaijan, Jahangir Gadjiyev.

“Structural modernization of the economy, in particular, of Azerbaijan, I firmly believe, is imperative. Azerbaijan economy - one of the fastest growing in the world and as per pace of GDP growth over the last five years, is leading in the Commonwealth”, - said J.Gadjiyev.

According to him, its stability Azerbaijan economy has demonstrated even in the current economic disasters, primarily due to the results achieved and also due to the effectiveness and efficiency of decision-crisis measures. Precisely these measures have been recognized by expert community as one of the most active in the FSU. In the past two years, the World Bank recognized Azerbaijan as a state - a world leader in reform, and leading international financial institutions included it to the group of countries whose economies are the least affected by the global crisis.

“Azerbaijan today is a self-sufficient state, providing itself with a financial, energy and labor resources” – said J. Gadjiyev. - Our country strengthens its position in the region and serves as a stabilizing factor in all areas of economic space. All this has given good reason to believe that in the economic sphere we have already completed the transition period and entered a new phase in its development. Now a new stage of modernization of the economy is coming, which needs the active phase of structural adjustment, and primarily it is a matter of the institutional and sectoral structure of the economy”. In terms of innovation development Azerbaijan have laid some definite groundworks.

According to the report of the World Economic Forum “On Global Competitiveness for 2010-2011”, by the factor of innovation Azerbaijan ranks 61st among 139 countries of the world and second - in CIS states (after Russia), well ahead of its neighbors in the Caucasus and Central Asia (“Trend”).

Note that in the course of running conference, participants put forward various proposals for further integration within the CIS. Of course, some ideas do not find their realization in the framework of the CIS as, for example, in the case with the introduction of the single currency in the Commonwealth. However, during the conference it becomes clear that the evolutionary solutions to the integration of countries within the CIS framework, both in terms of increasing the share of national currencies in the trade turnover and in search of a mechanism for further enhancing economic cooperation are put into practice.

Caspian countries could create a Caspian Sea Customs Union to expand economic cooperation, considers Anatoly Kazakov, Chairman of the Coordinating Council of Finance and Banking Council of CIS states. “For enhancement of cooperation between the Caspian Sea states there are good opportunities. The countries of the region can create a Customs Union of the Caspian Sea, the Economic Council of the Caspian countries”, - said A. Kazakov in Baku on Thursday, speaking at III International Conference of CIS Financial Institutions - the basis of structural modernization of the economies of the CIS member states”.

According to him, “a single economic zone of the Caspian is a huge transportation and financial flows”. A.Kazakov added that currently the work is under preparation to establish regional financial centers in Baku, Almaty and Moscow.

He also noted that within the CIS now a tendency of increasing payments in national currencies is observed. “If a few years ago in local currencies were performed only 5% of the settlements, but today this figure exceeds 20%, and the growth trend of this index is retained” - he said.

President of the International Bank of Azerbaijan, Jahangir Gadjiyev said that the IBA issued credits for 80 projects aimed at ensuring the modernization of the economy of Azerbaijan. “These are projects in the field of innovation, industry, construction, electricity. In particular, we have funded projects to develop wind power in the Republic, the establishment of infrastructure for mobile communications, the development of metallurgical industry, various manufacturing enterprises”, - he said.

The Head of the Bank added that the development strategy of IBA for 2010-2015 is aimed at the increase of the efficiency of the bank's “transformation of IBA into a reliable and credit institution of a high level”.

Note that within the framework of conference the signing of several documents that directly play a positive role in promoting cooperation within the CIS took place.

International Bank of Azerbaijan (IBA) on Thursday signed a framework cooperation agreement with Belorusbank - the largest Belarusian bank. “This agreement provides for cooperation in many areas of banking, including customer service, both on the territory of Azerbaijan and Belarus. The agreement also provides support to transnational contracts” - said Jahangir Gadjiyev, Chairman of IBA at a press- conference on Thursday.

In addition, the bank signed a memorandum with the American Company Coinstar Eurasia Limited to launch the project “cash-to-card”. The project will allow IBA customers to fill card account through payment terminals Coinstar Eurasia Limited.

“IBA together with Coinstar has been working under this project for a long time. From December 2010 payments will be made under this system”, - said Gadjyev. According to him, a business model is developed, the institutional order of cross-border transactions, money transfers through the filling up thebank cards issued by the IBA are determied.

Gadjiyev pointed out that Coinstar and AzeriCard Azerbaijan Processing Centre prepared a technology platform that provides a direct connection to a processing center for the implementation of transactions on the principle of “cash-to-card”. “This is the first such project in CIS territory”, - he added.

IBA was founded in 1992 and is the largest bank in Azerbaijan. Currently, 50.2% of the bank capital belongs to the state, 49,8% to private shareholders. In whole, 14 legal entities and 1.556 thousand individuals are shareholders of IBA.

Belorusbank was formed in July 1991 and reorganized in October 1995 by merging with the Savings Bank of the BSSR. 85.703% of the shares belong to the state (represented by the SPC), 14.123% - to the administrative-territorial units, 0.171% - to legal entities, 0,003% to natural persons.

IBA as per results of 2009, took 30th place among banks in CIS and 1st place - among 46 banks in Azerbaijan in terms of assets in the ranking of “Interfax-1000: CIS Banks”, prepared by “Interfax-CEA”. Belorusbank has taken in this ranking 16th place among banks of CIS and the 1st place among 31 banks of Belarus.