Azerbaijan, Baku / / / / / Trend endCapital , corr. U. Ismayilova/ The National Confederation of Entrepreneurs of Azerbaijan has submitted the draft "State Programme for Development of Small-Scale and Medium-Sized Entrepreneurship" to the Economic Development Ministry. Alakbar Mammadov, the President of the confederation, said today that the mentioned programme covers the period 2007-2012.
According to Mr Mammadov, the package of proposals includes methods and ways for settling key problems of development of business in the country, including gender equality and development of women's entrepreneurship.
The proposal also includes the Draft-State Programme for Employment of Youth in the Sphere of Small-Scale and Medium-Sized Entrepreneurship.
"The package of proposals also includes proposals for the development of business which has the ability to compete to develop strong entrepreneurship in the country. This will have a positive effect on the State Programme for the Country Joining WTO," said Mr Mammadov.
The fourth proposal is the Programme for Ensuring Merited Labour in the Country to Adopt International Standards by Entrepreneurship Organizations. According to him, today, the major factor that impedes the development of entrepreneurship in Azerbaijan is corruption.
"Monopoly is also one of the key factors that hampers the development of business," he said.
Mr Mammadov noted that corruption has mainly recently been seen in those offices and agencies, which are engaged in allotting land. The second place is in judicial bodies.
As a result of the poll conducted by the Confederation, the key factors that impede the development of cooperation in the country are as follows:
| Factors | Ganja | Ali-Bayramli | Mingachavir | Totally | |
| Corruption | 48% | 60% | 57% | 47% | 53% |
| Monopolies | 42% | 10% | 23% | 27% | 26% |
| Heavy Taxes | 4% | 20% | 10% | 7% | 10% |
| Illegal Checkups and Raids | 6% | 8% | 7% | 7% | 7% |
| Difficult to Answer | 0% | 2% | 3% | 7% | 3% |
Notably, the National Entrepreneurs Confederation was established in Baku in 1999. To date, over 2,500 entrepreneurship entities (units), including about 35 social and economic associations have been combined into confederations.