BAKU, Azerbaijan, June 27. The number of small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) increased by 45 percent and amounted to about 360,000 from 2018 through 2021 in Azerbaijan, Agency for the Development of Small and Medium-sized Businesses under the Ministry of Economy of Azerbaijan told Trend.
The agency notes that 97.3 percent of the SMEs operating in Azerbaijan are micro, 1.9 percent are small and 0.8 percent are medium-sized businesses.
"SMEs mainly work in the field of trade, agriculture, construction, processing, logistics, industry, tourism, catering, transport and other areas in Azerbaijan," the agency said.
According to the State Statistics Committee, the share of SMEs in non-oil GDP increased from 23.5 percent to 26.6 percent in 2018-2021.
The agency notes that entrepreneurs in Azerbaijan, including small and medium-sized businesses, are covered by broad measures of state support.
"The Agency for the Development of Small and Medium-sized Businesses of Azerbaijan provides activities to regulate the SME sector, improve the provision of public services to business, protect the interests of SMEs, improve their access to knowledge and innovation, markets and finance, provides SMEs with a number of services," the agency said.
“The SME development centers have conducted more than 3,000 trainings to improve the business knowledge of SMEs, which are used free of charge by about 40,000 SMEs, provided consulting services, which are used by up to 5,500 entrepreneurs, developed a business plan for about 800 SMEs," the agency added.
Moreover, the agency issued about 100 startup certificates, which exempted them from profit tax on income from innovation activities for 3 years.
"In order to support the improvement of the financial capabilities of SMEs within the framework of the financing mechanism for their projects in the field of education, science, research and support, so far 39 SMEs have been granted amounts of money worth more than 750,000 manat ($441,176)," the agency notes.
The agency notes that they have received about 1,500 applications from entrepreneurs who want to build a business and invest in the liberated territories from Armenian occupation [after the Second Karabakh War], of which about 70 percent are applications from local enterprises.