03 June 2019, Baku: Elman Rustamov, Governor of the Central Bank received Dr. Simone Haeberli, Chargée d’Affaires of Embassy of Switzerland and Deputy Regional Director for the Swiss Cooperation Office for the South Caucasus.
Ms. Haeberli noted that the Government of Azerbaijan has shown considerable efforts to decrease dependency on oil and gas resources and diversify the economy by more private sector involvement in sustaining economic growth.
The meeting participants discussed the activities by the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) in Azerbaijan, the projects it supports, success stories of cooperation between Azerbaijan and SECO and new challenging directions. She thanked the Governor of the Central Bank for successful continuation of 20-year of bilateral technical cooperation by Switzerland in Azerbaijan and the support for its actions.
In his turn, E. Rustamov spoke about rapid socio-economic growth in the country resulting from successful policy pursued by the President, the image of Azerbaijan on an international arena due to socio-economic stability and higher attractiveness for international cooperation, one of the key directions of which is the ties with international financial institutions, including SECO. He also noted that the CBA has been cooperating with SECO within the frame of various projects for 20 years which he appreciates very highly.
The meeting participants emphasized close cooperation of the CBA with SECO as part of the ‘Bilateral assistance and capacity building for central banks’ (BCC I) Program since 2012. As part of the first phase of the program SECO rendered technical assistance on inflation forecasting, interest rate policy transmission, financial stability, the exchange rate policy and monetary economy, launch of the comprehensive real sector monitoring system. E.Rustamov mentioned that it is important and critical to continue cooperation with SECO to successfully realize all objectives of the CBA on the backdrop of global economic environment and new challenges.
The participants later discussed the issues of technical assistance to be rendered as part of the second phase of the Bilateral Assistance and Capacity Building for Central Banks (BCC II) to cover 2019-2022, the cooperation program of the Central Bank with SECO. The Geneva Graduate Institute, the implementing agency, is planning to render technical assistance on monetary policy analysis and implementation, macroeconomic statistics and forecasting, and other directions within the program framework. The meeting was finalized with the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding related to the implementation of the second phase of the BCC II Program between the CBA and SECO.