Azernews.Az

By Leman Mammadova

Azerbaijan’s Agency for the Development of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) is keen to cooperate with U.S. relevant agencies to learn their experience in the development of SMEs.

A delegation of SME Development Agency held meetings with a number of U.S. agencies and organizations to discuss possibilities for cooperation in the SMEs, as part of the Second Caspian Business Forum in New York.

Orkhan Mammadov, Chairman of the Agency’s Board, briefed on the Agency’s activities, support and services provided to SMEs in the country during a meeting with Efgan Nifti, Executive Director of the Caspian Policy Center.

The sides exchanged views on keeping the focus on SMEs and opportunities for cooperation in this area at various events held by the Caspian Policy Center.

Mammadov also met with Beth Goldberg, Director of the U.S. Small Business Administration’s (SBA) New York district office and Andrew Flamm, director of the Small Business Development Center at Pace University. The sides discussed support measures provided for SMEs by these agencies and opportunities for their application in Azerbaijan.

Detailed discussions have been held on mentoring, training, development of women's entrepreneurship as well as studying U.S. experience for effective organization of Agency’s SME development centers, organization of video conferences with participation of experts from both sides.

At a meeting at the U.S. Department of Commerce's International Trade Administration, the sides exchanged views on the U.S. experience in business missions, SME support activities, as well as mutual business visits.

Agency’s interest in establishing cooperation between Azerbaijani and the U.S. companies in food, tourism, ICT and other fields, was noted during a meeting with Mark Jaffe, Head of the Greater New York Chamber of Commerce, and Helana Natt, the Chamber’s Executive Director.

The possibilities for organization of joint activities for SMEs have been discussed.

As part of a meeting with Ulas Neftci, Director of New York Small Business Development Center’s Manhattan office, the sides discussed trainings for entrepreneurs, opportunities for exchange of experience between the U.S. Center and the Agency’s SME Development Center.

It was noted that the New York Small Business Center is ready to share its experience with the SME Development Agency in the relevant field.

The main task of the SMEs Development Agency is ensuring the succession of reforms, improvement of the business regulation system, and application of effective coordination, enhancing the role and competitiveness of SMEs in the country's economy, as well as the compliance of the management system in this area with modern requirements.

The share of SMEs in employment in Azerbaijan was 76 percent last year, and in recent years, comprehensive work has been carried out for the development of SMEs. In particular, inspections of business entities have been suspended and the process of obtaining licenses has been simplified.

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

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