ADB may continue to support strategic reforms in Azerbaijan after 2023

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) plans to consider expanding the scale of technical assistance (TA) to support strategic reforms in 2023, the implementation of which was completed at the end of September 2021, Report informs referring to the final report of ADB on the project.

This issue can be considered in the last year of the implementation of the partnership strategy with the country (designed for 2019-2023).

This will allow a quick response to the government’s request for policy advice and help shape the agenda for the next country partnership strategy, the report says.

The initial implementation period for TA was from February 1, 2018 to March 31, 2019. It was renewed twice, for a total of 1.5 years.

“The TA’s implementation delay of 1.5 years was because of factors beyond the TA’s control (e.g., the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in January 2020). In fact, the longer-than-expected implementation enabled the TA to fully meet its outcome and utilize its budget in a value for money manner (i.e. more consultant inputs than planned to support the new institutions in highly impactful and strategically important areas for the country’s agenda on economic diversification away from oil). The TA resulted in a few indirect socio-economic benefits such as the improved legislative process that now includes RIA, strengthened government institutional framework for public-private partnerships (PPPs), and more gender-responsive budgeting,” the ADB noted.

The TA’s expected impact was the effective implementation of the Strategic Roadmap on the National Economy Perspective. The expected outcome was strengthened design and implementation of strategic reforms through mainstreaming of new ideas and international best practices. The TA’s two outputs were: Fast-track inputs to strategic reforms and Government capacity strengthened through regional experiences and domestic know-how.

“The policy notes would contribute to the design and implementation of inform the following priority measures: assessment of the role of state-owned enterprises (SOEs) in the economy in the medium- and long-term, raising the efficiency of public utility SOEs, including through strategic mainstreaming of private participation in infrastructure; promoting the education-innovation-production chain; strengthening the country’s competition promotion framework; and improving financial inclusion,” reads the report.

The TA funds were used as expected, except that the planned capacity-building activities on domestic know-how and study tours did not materialize because of the lack of demand from the government.

“The TA effectively delivered events on capacity building and international best practice knowledge sharing to the government on regulatory impact assessment (RIA), PPP institutional set-up, and vocational education and training (VET) reforms. The workshops on domestic know-how did not take place because at the initial phase of the TA implementation the government agencies had prioritized support through hands-on Azerbaijan-contextualized knowledge sharing and expert advice in the country. The strict lockdown measures introduced during March - October 2020 and the full focus of the government on mitigating the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on the national economy have made it impossible to deliver the workshops on domestic policy-relevant know-how and organize a study tour,” the ADB noted.

To support strategic reforms, the ADB provided Azerbaijan with technical assistance for $225,000.

In December 2016, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev approved the Strategic Roadmap for the Development of the National Economy. This document defines the main tasks for the period until 2020, until 2025 and for the period after 2025.