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Azerbaijan stands ready to continue co-operation with IFC to improve business climate: deputy minister

Business Materials 25 June 2009 20:12 (UTC +04:00)

Azerbaijan, Baku, June 25/ Trend I. Khalilova /

On June 25, the International Finance Corporation (IFC) announced the results of monitoring on business climate conducted in 2008 through a survey amongst small and medium enterprises in Azerbaijan.

IFC started studying the business environment in Azerbaijan at the end of 2007 and the survey was conducted amongst 1,800 companies. The purpose of the survey was to identify major issues affecting small and medium enterprises, as well as private entrepreneurs, corporate/legal and administrative obstacles to improvement in the development and operation of the private sector, identify gaps in the investment environment on the basis of the recommendations based on best international practices.

According to the Ambassador of Switzerland to Azerbaijan Alain Guidetti, as a result of studies, it was suggested to carry out actions to improve the system of licensing and permission, to conduct audits of entrepreneurship activity, taxation in order to enter the capital market, and in the foreign trade that will support the future development of the private sector in Azerbaijan.

Deputy Minister of Economic Development of Azerbaijan Niyazi Safarov informed of the consistent and systematic policy carried out in the country to further improve the business environment, form a national entrepreneurship category. He also said that the government stands ready to continue cooperation with the IFC to improve the system of state control in order to train local experts to conduct monitoring of the business environment in accordance with the methodology established based on international practice. Cooperation can also be made in the sphere of improving the system of permission for business activities, preventing interference in the business and protect the rights of entrepreneurs.

"The Government of Azerbaijan has conducted important work in the direction of improving the business environment in the country, and today continues reforms in priority spheres, and as a result, the country can achieve greater success," said the IFC representative in Azerbaijan Aliya Azimova said.

She said that the development of non-oil sector, SMEs and attracting investments will facilitate maintaining a long-term development of the country's economy during the global financial crisis and will enable Azerbaijan to be more competitive at international level.

The project is realized jointly with Switzerland's State Secretariat for Foreign Relations (SECO) and BP Azerbaijan.

The program is envisaged for a period of five years. It aims at reducing regulatory burden on business; monitoring the business environment; and by its dissemination increase public awareness of the key development issues.

To improve the business climate, Seco provided a grant totaling $4.3 million and BP - about $0.456 million to the government.
Through projects to improve the business climate in the CIS countries, IFC has helped to make changes and adopt 11 basic laws / regulations, which enabled small and medium enterprises to save $93 million.

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