AFchamber held a conference in a partnership with PASHA Bank
On 22 June 2021, a conference on “Access to Finance for Small and Medium Businesses” was held with the joint initiative of AFchamber and PASHA Bank. Kestutis Jankauskas, Head of the EU Delegation to Azerbaijan; Orkhan Mammadov, Chairman of the Small and Medium Business Development Agency (SMBDA) Management Board; Yusif Abdullayev, Acting President of AZPROMO; Taleh Kazimov, Chairman of the Executive Board at PASHA Bank; Kanan Najafov, Chairman of the Entrepreneurship Development Fund (EDF) Executive Board; Asif Mahmudov, Senior Banker at the EBRD office in Baku, attended as guest speakers at the conference, moderated by Zibar Huseynova, Managing Director at AFchamber. French Ambassador to Azerbaijan Zacharie Gross participated in the conference as an honorary guest. The conference discussed the challenges faced by SMEs in their business activities, new types of financing provided to facilitate their access to finance, and projects initiated by various companies in this area.
The event started with an opening speech by Teyba Guliyeva, Chair of the AFchamber Management Board, and Taleh Kazimov, Chairman of the Executive Board at PASHA Bank.
In her welcoming speech, Teyba Guliyeva, Chair of the AFchamber Management Board, stressed the importance of public-private partnership to remove barriers to access to finance for SMEs, noting that such events are significant in deepening bilateral dialogue.
Taleh Kazimov spoke about the SME segment and its important role in the economy. He stressed that the Bank’s main focus in the remaining three-year strategic period, as well as in the Development Strategy for 2021-2023, is to provide SME financing.
Speaking at the panel, representatives of government agencies, the private sector, and international organizations spoke about the activities carried out by institutions on the subject and future projects.
The conference continued with the Q&A session, questions of the participants were answered by the guest speakers.