Postpone decision on loan for Shah Deniz II gas field in Azerbaijan - letter to the board of the Asian Development Bank

Ahead of the Asian Development Bank's board meeting where a loan to the Shah Deniz gas expansion project in Azerbaijan is to be discussed, a group of NGOs ask the ADB board to postpone a decision and align the ADB to the practice of other IFIs involved in financing the same and related gas projects.

As independent and civil organizations have been subject to the Azerbaijani government’s repression, financing of the Shah Deniz expansion would undermine credibility of the Asian Development Bank’s shareholders, as well as forefeiting the principles – accountability, transparency and public participation - that the ADB promotes as essential for achieving poverty eradication in Asia.