BAKU, Azerbaijan, April 25. The number of SMEs in Azerbaijan has increased by 45 percent and approached 356,000 over the past four years since the beginning of the activity of Azerbaijan Small and Medium Business Development Agency (SMBDA), Chairman of the Board of SMBDA Orkhan Mammadov said, Trend reports.
Mammadov made the remark during an event themed "Heydar Aliyev and development of entrepreneurship in Azerbaijan".
According to him, over the mentioned period, the share of SMEs in non-oil GDP increased from 23.5 percent to 26.6 percent, and in non-oil exports - from 23.3 percent in 2019 to 59.8 percent.
"We define our strategic agenda in the form of interaction with entrepreneurs, studying their needs and development trends. To this end, regular surveys are conducted with the involvement of internal resources, professional companies, applications received from entrepreneurs are analyzed, industry meetings and round tables are organized,” he noted.
Based on the received data and analysis for the past period created and put into operation a number of mechanisms to support business entities and persons wishing to start entrepreneurial activities, the official also said.
“Thus, the grant program for domestic market research, financing of educational, scientific, research and auxiliary projects, the issuance of a start-up certificate, which includes tax benefits, access to large retail chains, participation in local and international exhibitions are effective mechanisms for business development," Mammadov said.
Besides, he noted that ‘Houses of SMEs’, operating in three regions of Azerbaijan, provide ‘G2B’ [government-to-business] and ‘B2B’ [business-to-business] services in the ‘one-stop shop’ format.
"In January 2023, with the participation of the head of state, the opening of the Baku House of SMEs with wide functional and technical capabilities took place. This is a bright example of the attention paid by the country's leadership to the development of entrepreneurship,” the board chairman emphasized.
Offices of ‘Friend of SMEs’, currently operating in 39 cities and regions of Azerbaijan, provide locally comprehensive state support for the creation of new business entities and the development of existing ones, Mammadov said.
“In order to facilitate this, SME Development Centers were put into operation in Baku and the regions of Azerbaijan. These centers provide training, counseling and networking services free of charge,” he reminded.
At the end of 2022, two more important legal documents related to the SME sector were also adopted, the official also reminded.
“These are a new law ‘On development of micro-, small and medium-sized businesses’ and ‘Exemplary regulations on clusters of subjects of micro-, small and medium-sized businesses’. Practical work has already begun on the establishment of SME cluster companies, which are subject to a number of tax benefits," he added.
The SMBDA was established under the Decree of the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev dated December 28, 2017.