Azerbaijan, Baku, Dec. 11 / Trend K.Zarbaliyeva /
Azerbaijan's economy has entered a new stage of development, which requires activization to improve the legal framework in the economic field, Parliamentary Economic Policy Committee Chaiman Ziyad Samadzade said. Therefore the spring session of the parliament can be expected to be busy, he said at the committee meeting.
Samadzade proposed to hold circuit committee meetings to expedite the process of preparation and consideration of bills.
"A large-scale work is done in connection with the preparation of Azerbaijan's accession to the WTO and this process also covers the improvement of legislation," Samadzade said.
MP Vahid Ahmadov proposed to accelerate the adoption of draft laws "On Competition", "On Education Loans" and "On indexation of deposits." Given the importance of the law "On Competition", which has already passed two readings, for the Azerbaijani economy he suggested to include the law in the agenda of the autumn session of the parliament for adoption at third reading.
He said the Azerbaijani MPs should draw attention to the effectiveness of laws in the field of assessment activities that will allow not to repeat the recent problems in connection with the rise in prices for grain and flour, and bread as a result. It is also necessary to study the experience of other countries in the regulation of prices, in particular the CIS countries. "Pricing policy should be governed even in a market economy," Ahmadov said.
MP Khanhuseyn Kazimli added that Azerbaijan has adopted the laws "On appraisal activity " and "On regulated prices", but the application of them still remain open. Azerbaijan was the first among the CIS countries which passed the laws "On appraisal activity" in 1998, and today the International Finance Corporation is helping to improve it.
"This law is very important for the regulation of pricing policy, particularly in the financial sector, where the assessment of pledge should be conducted by independent certified evaluators, not by banks' employees," Kazimli said.
For example, to obtain a loan worth 100,000 manat borrowers must provide pledge worth one million manat, which the banks estimate at 200,000 manat.
MP Ali Masimli supported the need for adoption of the proposed bills, adding to this list the Codes on Banking and Customs, as well as the draft law "On State Financial Control". He believes it is important to accelerate the adoption of the law "On Education Loans" to further support the development of intellectual capacity, given that the list of fee-based universities increases in the country, country's growing. One cannot pat 2,000-3,000 manat per year for education with average monthly salary at the level of 300 manat in the republic and 200 manat in state institutions. To solve this problem we need to expand public access to bank loans, intended to pay for education.
Then, MPs proceeded to consider the draft amendments and additions to some legislative acts in connection with the beginning of application of the law "On education" and " On compulsory insurance on labor ability loss in production". Following the debate the bills were recommended for submission to a discussion at the parliament.
This was the first meeting of the parliamentary committee in new composition. In the previous convocation, during the past five years, the Parliament ratified 294 laws in the economic field or 20 percent of the total number of the laws adopted during this period.