Azernews.Az

By Leman Mammadova

In recent years, Azerbaijan’s Ministry of Economy has been issuing soft loans to entrepreneurs in a bid to establish strong entrepreneurial base in the country.

Entrepreneurship Development Fund under the Ministry of Economy granted a total of 538,000 manats ($316,561) of soft loans to 33 entrepreneurs operating in the Ganja-Gazakh economic region, during a business forum held in Samukh region on October 8.

These loans will be used to implement projects in the areas of livestock, horticulture, and bread production.

In general, the entrepreneurs of the Ganja-Gazakh economic region have received soft loans totaling 590 million manats ($347 million) for the implementation of 7,000 projects, so far.

Since early 2019, the Entrepreneurship Development Fund issued soft loans at 132.6 million manats ($78 million) for the implementation of investment projects that in turn will open up about 3,800 jobs.

In particular, 65 percent of loans have been issued in the regions, 35 percent - in Baku and settlements. Moreover, 74.4 percent of soft loans were directed to the agricultural sector, 25.6 percent - to the industrial and other sectors of the economy.

As part of the event, an agropark granted with soft loan has been viewed.

Currently, 51 agro-parks and large farms are being established in 262,000 hectares across 33 regions of Azerbaijan. Some 192 million manats ($112.97 million) of soft loans provided to the establishment of 27 of these agroparks and large farms.

Azerbaijani Entrepreneurship Development Fund was established on the basis of the National Fund for Entrepreneurship Support, operating in the country since 1997.

The authorized capital of the Fund was set at 1.9 billion manats ($1.1 billion). Loans are issued for 5,000 ($2,933) to 50,000 manats ($29,326) for a period of 3 years, from 50,000 to 1 million manats ($586,510) for 5 years and from 1million to 10 million ($5.87 million) for 10 years. The annual loan rate is 5 percent.

The Fund intends to issue soft loans worth 160 million manats ($94 million) this year. In general, the Fund has issued soft loans in the amount of more than 2.3 billion manats ($1.35 billion) so far. About 68 percent of the loans was directed to the agricultural sector.

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

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