Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 8
By Anvar Mammadov - Trend:
The National Fund for Entrepreneurship Support (NFES) under Azerbaijan’s Economy Ministry allocated majority of the loans (66.4 percent of the total value of preferential financing) to the production and processing of agricultural products in 2017, according to the balance sheet of the NFES for the last year.
The fund allocated 96.98 million manats for financing 1,871 projects in the agribusiness sphere, 93.63 million manats of which accounted for the agricultural production. The fund allocated 3.35 million manats for the implementation of 11 projects in the processing sphere. It is planned to create 5,224 new jobs as a result of the implementation of the projects in the agriculture sphere.
In 2017, the fund financed 68 projects in the manufacture and processing of various industrial products worth a total of 33.66 million manats (with a specific weight of 23.1 percent of the total value of loans). As many as 1,000 jobs will be created as a result of the implementation of these projects.
The fund financed six projects worth a total of 10.48 million manats (with a specific weight of 7.2 percent) in the sphere of development of the services sector (in the infrastructure field). The implementation of these projects will provide the opening of 204 jobs. In addition, the fund financed eight projects worth 4.88 million manats in the tourism sector last year.
The fund allocated small loans (worth 20.19 million manats, or 13.8 percent of the total value of loans) to finance 96 percent of the projects last year. The NFES allocated 41 average loans (2.1 percent) worth 8.94 million manats (6.1 percent of the total value of loans) and 37 big loans (1.9 percent) worth 116.87 million manats (80.1 percent).
In general, the fund allocated loans worth a total of 146 million manats to 1,953 entrepreneurs in 2017.
The NFES was established in 1992.
(1.7001 manats = 1 USD on Feb. 8)