Azerbaijan, Baku / Trend corr I. Khalilova / The Azerbaijani Government intends to suspend the budget financing of the National Fund to Support Entrepreneurship once the Fund's portfolio achieves AZN 500mln, Azerbaijani Economic Development Minister, Heydar Babayev, said on 10 July.
According to the Minister, today financing of entrepreneurship in Azerbaijan is increasing owing to the Fund, though as it was in 2006 the public budget allocated AZN 80mln for this purpose (AZN 6mln are envisaged for support to entrepreneurship in the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic). Financing is also implemented at the expense of returned funds.
The Minister noted that apart from paying off the interest on the credits allotted by the Fund, repayment of the main debt has already begun. In 2006, some AZN 90mln was allotted by the Fund from the repaid funds.
The Deputy Economic Development Minister, the Chairman of the Supervisory Board of the National Fund, Niyazi Safarov, reported on 10 July that some AZN 16mln of the earlier allotted credits has been repaid so far.