Economy Ministry issues almost 1,000 licenses for business doing
By Sara Israfilbayova
Azerbaijani businessmen have received 966 licenses for doing business since early 2017.
Some 683 of these licenses are new, while 283 - replacement of old licenses for perpetual ones, the Economy Ministry reported on August 15.
In total, since November 2015, the Economy Ministry has provided businessmen with more than 4,300 licenses for doing business, including 2,450 new licenses through the ASAN Service Centers.
The licenses were issued to entrepreneurs engaged in the fields of pharmaceutics, construction, veterinary, plant growing, agricultural chemistry, metallurgy, transport and other activities, according to the ministry.
Encouraging local entrepreneurship is one of the priorities for the Azerbaijani government, which supports entrepreneurs through creating necessary conditions for the development of a healthy business environment in the country.
To this end, it is planned to create the Agency of Small and Medium Enterprises and the Guarantee Credit Fund in 2017-2018.
Also, there is the National Fund for Entrepreneurship Support (NFES) under the Azerbaijani Economy Ministry that has been operating since 1992 to provide preferential loans from the state budget for small and medium business in an effort to develop entrepreneurship in the Republic of Azerbaijan.
The NFES allocated 190 million manats ($111.7 million) for financing projects of local business entities in 2016.
President Ilham Aliyev signed a decree on additional measures to encourage investment on January 18, 2016. The decree was signed to expand investment activities, improve business environment, increase industrial production, as well as create a mechanism and normative legal acts related to encouragement of investments, in accordance with the action plan for realization of the “2015-2020 State Program for Development of Industry in Azerbaijan.”
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