Baku, Azerbaijan, May 30
By Anvar Mammadov – Trend:
Azerbaijan’s Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FIMSA) offers expanding access to finances for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), said FIMSA head Rufat Aslanli.
He made the remarks at the conference titled “Economic Reforms: Achieved Results and Recommendations” in Baku May 30.
Aslanli said financing of SMEs cannot be maintained only at the expense of traditional bank lending.
“At the moment, Azerbaijani business needs two types of financing – investments and loans. Investments cannot be financed through loans. This increases the cost of investments and makes them uncompetitive. Therefore, we propose a number of institutional measures to develop an access to financial instruments,” he said.
“For the purpose of ensuring investment financing, we suggest reorganization of the Azerbaijan Investment Company and extension of its mandate. The newly established institute will have to support the financing of start-ups, business expansion and other projects,” Aslanli noted.
“In order to expand access to loans, we believe it is necessary to combine a number of credit support institutions – the National Fund for Entrepreneurship Support, State Fund for Development of Information Technologies and State Agency for Agricultural Lending – into one structure,” he added.