Azernews.Az

By Amina Nazarli

Doing Business 2017 reported placed Azerbaijan 65th among 190 countries in the global rankings on the Ease of Doing Business, ranking the country among 29 countries that implemented three or more reforms.

Energy-rich Azerbaijan has the best indicator on the Starting Businesses, as the country ranked the 5th thanks to the ASAN service efficiency.

Valentine Sultan, a Private Sector Development Specialist at the World Bank, said that
Azerbaijan made starting a business easier by abolishing the requirement to use a corporate seal.

ASAN Service center was established by the presidential decree in 2012. The Service provides venues for state agencies to render their services in a uniformed and coordinated manner.

The service could reduce extra expenses and loss of time for many citizens, upgrade the level of professionalism, ensure a larger use of electronic services and increase transparency and strengthen the fight against corruption. Day by day powers of the center are expanding, thus contributing to the state-citizen relations and saving time of many people.

"Azerbaijan also has a good indicator in the registration of real estate taking 22nd place among 190 countries, while the worst indicator is for obtaining a building permit - 127th place. The entrepreneurs in the country need to go through 18 procedures to get a construction permit, according to our data. Another indicator is for loans, where Azerbaijan took 118th place. Absence of a registry of movable property adversely affects to this sphere," she said.

The report further says that Azerbaijan facilitated international trade processes by introducing an electronic system for submitting export and import declarations.

Moreover, Azerbaijan made paying taxes easier by abolishing vehicle tax for residents, while minority investor protections strengthened by introducing requirements that related-party transactions undergo external review and be voted on by disinterested shareholders.

Azerbaijan was ranked 63rd in the Doing Business-2016 report.

The country has also suspended inspection of entrepreneurs' activities (for the period of two years), which was earlier considered to be one of the key hindrances to the development of entrepreneurship. Moreover, tax reforms approved by the president are expected to make radical changes in the tax system, by introducing more favorable VAT rates for the socially vulnerable layers of the population, reducing tax burden on small and medium-sized business, resolving problems during taxation of trade operations.

Doing Business sheds light on how easy or difficult it is for a local entrepreneur to open and run a small to medium-size business when complying with relevant regulations. It measures and tracks changes in regulations affecting 11 areas in the life cycle of a business: starting a business, dealing with construction permits, getting electricity, registering property, getting credit, protecting minority investors, paying taxes, trading across borders, enforcing contracts, resolving insolvency and labor market regulation.

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Amina Nazarli is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @amina_nazarli

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