Azerbaijan, Baku, Oct. 16 / Trend , N.Ismayilova /
The 2012-state budget increased funding for the National Fund for Entrepreneurship Support (NFES) under the Azerbaijani Economic Development Ministry due to the increasing number of appeals from the employers, NFES Executive Director Shirzad Abdullayev told Trend on Saturday.
"The NFES has been actively exploring the economic potential of each region and district of the country, and preparing projects for entrepreneurs on the basis of these studies. Due to this, the number of entrepreneurs appealing to obtain preferential loans has significantly increased," he said.
Just given the growing interests, the state budget provides more funding for the NFES in 2012. The 2012-state budget is expected to allocate 90.1 million manat to the Foundation. The figure is more by 2.6 times, or 56.1 million manat and exceeds the financing volumes provided in 2011.
The state budget allocated 453.1 million manat to the NFES for financing of businesses on preferential terms in 2006-2011.
"The expansion of the funding volumes will enable the Fundation to finance more projects. Given the current trends, the number of entrepreneurs who will receive preferential loans in 2012, will increase at time and the volume of loans will be increased maximum," he said.
NFES was established in 1992. Loans are allocated to entrepreneurs through authorized banks and non-bank credit organizations, whose overall number is 39. In 2011, the Fund plans to finance the issuance of preferential loans worth 125 million manat.