Azerbaijan: Every child gets a voucher pie

International investors this summer gained their best chance yet to invest in Transcaucasia, the region of the CIS separating Russia and the Middle East, with the start of voucher privatization in Azerbaijan. The country’s programme is more open to foreign investment than almost any other in the CIS and lets investors take exposure to an economy that is growing at more than 5% a year.

“Azerbaijan was at first slower to reform than other east European countries,” says Thomas Bley, associate banker at the European Bank for Reconstruction & Development in London.