Salam, Mr. Mammadov.
Salam.

Thank you for accepting our invitation.
I thank you for your invitation. Very glad to see you.

Karabakh is very important and sensitive topic for us. We know that PASHA Holding and its subsidiaries were implementing a number of social projects in Karabakh during the wartime. Let’s start with those before we jump onto current and future plans on the subject.
Ok, sounds good. As you mentioned, the wartime period was very emotional for everyone, especially seeing everyday advances that our national army was making. At the same time, it was a period full of worries. Both as a company and as individuals, during the wartime along with the information war, we tried to focus on support for soldiers, their families and the victims of the war.
In the first days of the war, PASHA Holding donated 1 million AZN to the newly established Armed Forces Support Fund. In addition, the companies of our Group have implemented a number of social activities. For example, employees of PASHA Bank, PASHA Life, PASHA Insurance visited war victims in Barda and Tartar to support urban and rural residents. Our supermarket chain Bravo, supported those affected as a result of rocket attacks on the city of Ganja.
Kapital Bank, PASHA Travel, and Blue Planet Distribution provided more than one thousand soldiers with essential hygiene products, warm clothes, sweets, medical supplies and war equipment by sending them the so-called “soldier packages”. At the time of the establishment of the “YASHAT” foundation, PASHA Group was among the first organizations to support by donating 2 million AZN.
Yet, what I consider to be the most important contribution, is our people. More than 100 employees from our financial institutions and more than 500 employees from the entire PASHA Group participated in military operations as soldiers. Like all companies, we were incredibly proud of these individuals, but at the same time very anxious for each of them. It is a great honor for us to know that our employees have a share in the victory of our country in the Great Patriotic War. Victory is never achieved without losses, and, unfortunately, our Group also had human losses. Several members of our team became martyrs for their Motherland. I bow before each of them, and I wish patience to their families and relatives.

Thank you, Mr. Mammadov. What happened next? What is now being done by your companies to rebuild Karabakh? Let’s start with business and then go back to social projects.
It makes us happy to be able to say today that our Group of Companies included support for the rebuilding of the liberated regions in their strategic plan for the coming years. Taking into account the priorities in the revival process, we implement corresponding projects, in turn coordinating our development plans in this direction with the relevant government authorities. Many of our subsidiaries are already directly involved in the revival process.
Currently, our agriculture sector company, AgroDairy is working on development of lands in the liberated territories of Aghdam and Fuzuli. At the same time, works on agriculture and animal husbandry are being implemented in Zangilan and Jabrayil regions through joint venture between PASHA Investments, which is our private equity arm, and a partner company from Turkey.
You probably know, soon after the victory Bravo opened a store in Shusha to make sure that the soldiers and officers serving in that territory have easy access to all necessary goods. At the same time, our hotel groups are reviewing their investment portfolio and assessing the options in the region in order to contribute to its prosperity. To date, Absheron Hotel Group has already begun construction of a new hotel in Aghdam.
Coming to financial sector, both PASHA Bank and Kapital Bank will apply to the Central Bank of Azerbaijan for official permission to open new branches in Shusha. Branches in Shusha are planned to be opened by PASHA Insurance and PASHA Life Insurance, as well. Additionally, Kapital Bank plans to serve customers by opening new branches in all other liberated regions. These are the concrete businessrelated steps we plan to undertake to contribute to the revival of the region and I am confident that Karabakh will become the center not only of the country, but of the region in the very near future.

Thank you. Can you please briefly elaborate on your social projects?
One of the biggest social projects implemented by our Group of Companies recently is the “From Victory to Revival” project realized jointly with Karabakh Revival Fund (KRF) and the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources. During internal discussions of the New Year Gifts with our colleagues at PASHA Holding and our partners, we decided to link the gifts to a social project. We even thought over the general concept and essence of the project together and decided to dedicate the project to the restoration of the forest surface in Karabakh. As a result, on our initiative and with support of the KRF and the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources, a social project was launched in Karabakh on the eve of the New Year. In fact, it was very gratifying for us that when we informed KRF about our willingness to implement such a project, our colleagues told us that they were already working on a similar initiative. The full project consisted of planting 30.000 trees in Zangilan region, 11.000 of which were planted with the support of PASHA Group companies. We thank all our group companies for contributing to such an important effort. We hope that such projects will continue on a larger scale, and each of us will soon witness the full revival of Karabakh. I know, that KRF is now working on the second phase of this project and this is indeed a great opportunity for both organizations and individual citizens to contribute their own bit to the rebuilding of Karabakh.

Thank you, Mr. Mammadov!
I thank you.

IMPACT Magazine