Azernews.Az

By Amina Nazarli

The government of Azerbaijan believes that small and medium businesses can contribute significantly to diversifying the country’s economy to cease dependence on the petrodollars.

The development of local entrepreneurship will lead to more growth and high quality jobs in the country, while the state stimulates and supports entrepreneurs in every possible way.

The government has revealed another key reform that will stimulate and encourage SMEs and entrepreneurs. There was offered to simplify the process of licensing for travel agencies. Travel agencies will not be required to pass accreditation for getting e-visas for tourists, thus the list of the required documents maybe cut.

This proposal is reflected in the draft law on changes to Law "On Licenses and Permits", which was discussed at the meeting of the Parliamentary Committee for Economic Policy, Enterprise and Industry on November 17.

Following the debate, the Committee recommended the draft amendments for discussion in the Parliament's plenary session.

The country takes systematic measures to bolster entrepreneurship in the country, regardless difficult economic situation in the world.

The country has 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.

The government sees new investment incentives scheme as one of effective tools to stipulate business doing in the country and give a push for the development of small and medium entrepreneurship.

Now entrepreneurs receive the document of investment incentives, allowing creation new work places. Under the document of investment incentives, which cover seven economic areas of Azerbaijan, half of the revenue of an individual entrepreneur, profits of legal entity are exempted from income tax for seven years.

Priority areas for the country, which possesses a wide range of investment opportunities, are agriculture, heavy and light industry, alternative energy, tourism, information technologies and construction.

Recently, Doing Business 2017 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.

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

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