Multilateral Cooperation Center for Development Finance (MCDF) CEO Zhongjing Wang met senior officials from Azerbaijan’s Ministries of Finance, Economy, Energy, and Digital Development and Transportation on 27 February in Baku to discuss partnership growth for facilitating greater investment in the country’s sustainable, high-quality connectivity infrastructure development.
CEO Wang and his Senior Advisor, Mr. Juan Miranda, met Azerbaijan First Deputy Finance Minister Mr. Anar Karimov. The First Deputy Finance Minister noted MCDF’s role in fostering investment in bankable connectivity projects and expressed appreciation for its USD1.05 million grant to prepare an Azerbaijan-Kazakhstan-Uzbekistan green energy trade corridor project and USD105,000 concept development support focused on a Caspian Sea wind energy project—both to be implemented by the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB).
CEO Wang thanked First Deputy Finance Minister Karimov for Azerbaijan’s support for MCDF and welcomed the opportunity to help meet the country’s need for greater connectivity project preparation and institutional capacity building in areas such as fiscal consolidation, financial planning and management, policy reforms, and digitalization.
“Azerbaijan is taking important steps to enhance sustainable energy production and its position as a trade gateway between Central and West Asia and Europe,” said CEO Wang. “MCDF is committed to promoting regional and global connectivity infrastructure investment in the country through partnerships,” he continued.
Deputy Minister of Economy Mr. Anar Akhundov said that Azerbaijan requires support for the development of three other priority energy trade corridors, linking with Georgia, Türkiye, and toward Hungary. He and his staff discussed opportunities to engage more with MCDF and inquired about its support instruments and governance structure.
In a separate meeting, Deputy Minister of Digital Development and Transport Mr. Samir Mammadov said that Azerbaijan has an ambitious investment program and the availability of technical assistance for project preparation will be a success factor, for which MCDF’s help is desirable.
In a meeting with Energy Ministry senior officials, Dr. Ashraf Shikhaliyev, International Cooperation Department Director, underscored the importance of securing investment for the development of Azerbaijan’s four new green energy corridors, including the one already benefiting from the MCDF grant being implemented by AIIB.
CEO Wang detailed MCDF’s rapidly growing project preparation and capacity building grant portfolio, and information and knowledge-sharing activities to boost the application of International Financial Institution (IFI) standards and good practices in connectivity projects. MCDF has recently organized knowledge-sharing events addressing environmental and social safeguards, ports, public-private partnerships, climate resilience, digitalization, and the deployment of new technologies, especially in the renewable energy sector, he explained.
He also highlighted the MCDF Connectivity Infrastructure Report Series, which launched in June 2025 with two volumes, including one report examining IFI support for cross-border transport, energy, and digital infrastructure in Central and West Asia.
CEO Wang reaffirmed MCDF’s desire to expand MCDF’s connectivity infrastructure investment support in Azerbaijan and appreciated officials’ strong interest in participating in strategic discussions on MCDF’s next phase and first replenishment meeting in Beijing on 30 March.
Contact
David Hendrickson
Senior Communications Officer
Mobile: +86 185 0114 6758
david.hendrickson@themcdf.org
