BAKU, Azerbaijan, April 6. A special approach to determining priority areas for preferential lending has been developed for the territories of Azerbaijan liberated from occupation, chairman of the Board of the Entrepreneurship Development Fund under the Ministry of Economy of Azerbaijan Osman Khaliyev told Trend in an exclusive interview.
"The fund has been providing favorable loans to businesses operating in the liberated territories since 2022. Over 14 million manat ($8.2 million) have been set aside as of right now for seven initiatives involving these regions' agriculture and industry. To identify the most important industries for preferential financing in these regions, a customized approach has been developed. The service sector is also included in the projects that are supported, in addition to manufacturing and agriculture," he said.
The chairman stated that in an effort to promote investment and economic activity, the Fund has been implementing a system of guarantees and subsidies for business owners since the beginning of February of this year.
"We guarantee up to 90 percent of business loans up to 5 million manat ($2.9 million) with an annual interest rate of up to 15 percent," Khaliyev explained, emphasizing that projects in exempted territories are provided with a state guarantee.
He noted that entrepreneurs can also receive subsidies on these loans, subsidized by the state at 10 percent of the annual interest rate for up to 36 months.
"In order to streamline the application procedure and accelerate access to finance, we have built an information system called "Electronic Loan and Guarantee" that allows entrepreneurs to submit their applications online. These measures support the resurgence of economic activity in the freed areas and open up new opportunities for businesses in a variety of economic sectors," he added.
In 2023, the Entrepreneurship Development Fund of Azerbaijan provided soft loans worth 193.8 million manats ($113.3 million) to finance 3,276 investment projects.