BAKU, Azerbaijan, March 2. SMEs make up 99 percent of business entities in Azerbaijan, Board Chairman of the Azerbaijani Small and Medium Business Development Agency (SMBDA) Orkhan Mammadov said at the conference on "Prospects for the development of alternative financial markets in Azerbaijan", Trend reports.
According to Mammadov, global changes have a negligible negative impact on the activities of small business entities.
"The introduction of alternative sources of financing will have a positive impact on the development of entrepreneurial activity. Today we see that the share of Islamic banking is growing day by day," he said.
The official noted that in order to prevent global influences on the Azerbaijani economy, a national strategy until 2026 was adopted.
"As part of this strategy, it’s planned to implement a number of projects, including the SME investment fund. This instrument will serve as a good alternative source for SMEs," Mammadov stressed.
The board chairman added that within the framework of the implementation of Islamic banking in Azerbaijan, an appropriate consortium was created and a road map was adopted.
The SMBDA was established under the Decree of the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev dated December 28, 2017.
The agency’s objective is to support micro, small, and medium businesses development in the country, strengthen the role of small and medium businesses in the national economy, increase their competitiveness and contribution to the national development indicators, participate in the protection of SMEs interests and problems resolution, facilitate SMEs institutional support mechanisms, coordinate activities of government agencies and private institutions in this area.