Baku, Azerbaijan, Sept. 19
Trend:
The Azerbaijani Agency for the Development of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises implements a number of activities and projects to simplify access to the funds to develop the micro, small and medium-sized businesses of entrepreneurs, as well as to promote investment activities, Chairman of the Board of the Agency for the Development of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises Orkhan Mammadov said.
Mammadov made the remarks in Baku at the session entitled "Finance, Investments and SMEs" held as part of the 9th International Caspian Energy Forum Baku – 2019, Trend reports on Sept. 19.
He said that at the current stage, investment initiatives are being thoroughly analyzed, the state support mechanisms for their implementation are being promoted.
"Thus, according to the portfolio of activities, active measures are being taken to inform about tax discounts and benefits that arise from the Investment Promotion Document for SME projects,” Mammadov said. “Moreover, the negotiations are underway to attract foreign investments to these projects. There are already successful results and some local companies have already taken advantage of these opportunities."
“The Tax Code was changed upon the agency’s initiative,” he said. “These changes envisage new benefits and exemptions for SMEs and startups.”
“Some time ago, the criteria for participants and companies of SME clusters were approved,” Mammadov said. “Thanks to these mechanisms, clusters of SME companies to be created in the relevant spheres of activity will not pay taxes for seven years and will be able to use great privileges. Moreover, certificates to be issued for the startups by the agency will exempt them from income tax or profit tax for three years. The work is currently underway in this sphere."
He stressed that another mechanism has been recently launched to support SMEs.
“The procedure for conducting domestic market research to stimulate the competitive production of micro, small and medium enterprises” was approved upon the relevant decree of the Azerbaijani president,” Mammadov added.
"These support mechanisms can be used by entrepreneurs of micro, small and medium enterprises,” he said. “The analysis shows that it is necessary to conduct high-quality research of the domestic market for the production of competitive products. As this requires great financial costs, such projects sometimes become unfeasible for SMEs.”
“Thanks to the introduction of such a mechanism, 80 percent of spending on research of the domestic market held by an entrepreneur of micro-business and 50 percent of the expenses of an entrepreneur of micro-business will be reimbursed by the state,” Mammadov said.
“The medium-sized businesses will be able to use this support mechanism in the form of participation in free trainings and seminars, as well as receiving regular information support in certain spheres,” he said.
"The amount reimbursed by the state in connection with conducting research in the domestic market is envisaged up to 20,000 manats,” Mammadov said. “We think that the support mechanism in the direction of research in the domestic market will stimulate the investment activity of SMEs and will greatly contribute to the implementation of their business ideas."
