Details added (first version posted on 14:52)
Baku, Azerbaijan, May 25
By Anvar Mammadov - Trend:
All services to support entrepreneurship in Azerbaijan will be united within a single body – houses of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs), Executive Director of Azerbaijan’s Agency for Development of SMEs Orkhan Mammadov said.
Mammadov made the remarks in Baku May 25 at the conference dedicated to the Day of Entrepreneurs.
International experience shows that delivery of services to SMEs by a united body on a single window principle, along with positive results, allows to provide higher quality services, he noted.
“Given these factors, the Agency plans to create SME houses in Azerbaijani districts and cities,” Mammadov said. “The main goal of this step, along with meeting the needs of entrepreneurs, is to achieve efficiency, transparency and convenience.”
He noted that activity of the body will be aimed at organizing all measures necessary for the creation and support of SMEs at all stages of its development.
“The measures will be aimed at facilitating access to preferential financial sources, applying advanced organizational models, creating a long-term training system, integrating new ideas and innovations into business, entering foreign markets, protecting the interests of entrepreneurs and other directions,” Mammadov said.
In December 2017, President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev decreed to create the Agency for Development of SMEs under the Ministry of Economy.
According to the decree, the Agency is a public legal entity that supports the development of small and medium-sized businesses in the country, provides a range of services to SMEs, coordinates and regulates the services of state bodies in this field.
Also according to the decree, SME houses will operate at the ASAN Service centers. The SME houses will operate at the regional departments of the Economy Ministry in those districts of the country where the ASAN Service centers are not available. The SME houses will be controlled by the Agency for Development of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises.
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