Azerbaijan, Baku, Dec. 28 / Trend U. Ismayilova /
Foreign investors, including financial groups, are interested in Azerbaijan's economy, which shows intensive development in recent years, CEO of the largest leasing company Join Leasing and Head of the Azerbaijani Leasing Companies' Association (ALCA), Elchin Ahmedov said.
"The leasing market is no exception and it is quite interesting to foreign investors, some of them showed their interest and voiced plans on entering this market," he said.
The current number of leasing companies is sufficient, yet some of them do not use their full potential. Regarding the backlog in the leasing sector in relation to from banking and insurance, measures ought to be undertaken for the development the sector.
For example, the Azerbaijani parliament adopted the Law "On the stimulation and increase of capitalization in banks, insurance and reinsurance companies" to support the financial sector amid the global financial crisis as a preventive measure. The law provides tax exemption of profit directed for capitalization for a period of three years, starting January 2009. Unfortunately, the leasing sector, being a participant in financial markets, stayed away from this process, Ahmedov said.
"We appealed on the issue to the relevant structures, but saw no positive results. What retards the development of the leasing sector is the limited access to affordable long-term resources," he added.
Ahmedov also noted that the potential of the leasing sector for the benefit of country's economy could be several times higher than its current performance.
The Association was established on Oct. 27, 2004 by the companies Ataleasing, Unileasing, and Muganleasing, under the IFC's technical assistance for leasing development in Azerbaijan.