Azernews.Az

By Leman Mammadova

Azerbaijan has ranked 47th among 188 countries in the Global Startup Ranking. The rating included 200 startups in Azerbaijan.

The U.S. leads the ranking with 46,625 startups, followed with India (6,324), Great Britain (4,929), Canada (2,513) and Indonesia (2,105) in the top five.

As for the CIS countries, Russia ranks 19th (569 startups) and Ukraine takes the 43th place (241).

Global Startup Ranking records startups worldwide every year. Startup is a newly created company that is in the early stage of development. In general, startups are mainly related to the development and application of new technologies.

A number of measures are being taken to support startups in Azerbaijan. The State Fund for Development of Information Technologies under the Ministry of Communications and High Technologies has been established to be engaged in providing investment.

Recently, a joint consortium has been established with the participation of the Innovation Agency under the Ministry of Transport, Communications and High Technologies, AzInTelecom LLC and companies Lenovo, Nutanix, and iQRex to ensure the participation of startups in tenders held by various government agencies and individual companies, as well as in important projects and to support them in this field.

The consortium will provide local startuppers with an opportunity to get access to various financial sources, to take part in important projects, including large and medium-sized tenders.

Earlier, Falcons Summit was held in Baku aiming to create new opportunities for startup companies to increase capital and establish business relations with major investors, business leaders, international organizations and government officials.

Development of entrepreneurship is important for country's socio-economic growth. Azerbaijan makes maximum efforts to enhance the entrepreneurial activity.

Recently, new categories of entrepreneurship has been approved in Azerbaijan. Previously, the categories of entrepreneurs in the country included small, medium and large enterprises. The new category includes micro businesses - companies with a staff of one to ten people and an annual income of up to 200,000 manats ($117,682).

Development of small and medium-sized businesses leads to the growth of entrepreneurship, which is one of the priority directions of Azerbaijan’s economic policy. The share of small and medium-sized enterprises in Azerbaijan’s foreign trade is planned to increase to 40 percent after 2025.

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Leman Mammadova is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @leman_888

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