Azerbaijan developing employment strategy for next 15 years
Providing jobs to a large number of young people, who will rush into the labor market under conditions of demographic growth, is one of Azerbaijan’s main challenges, said Minister of Labor and Social Protection of Population Salim Muslimov.
He was addressing the opening ceremony of the Binagadi District Employment Center.
Muslimov said that in this regard his ministry together with relevant authorities is developing an employment strategy for the next 15 years.
“Azerbaijan experiences massive population growth, average annual population growth rate being 1.2-1.3 percent. The population is approaching 10 million people. Meanwhile, percentage of young population accounts for about 26. The unemployment rate among young people is twice the average rate for Azerbaijan and it is therefore important to reduce this figure to 5 percent,” said Muslimov.
In accordance with the report of the Azerbaijan’s State Statistical Committee, in the beginning of 2016 economically active population accounted for 4.97 million people, 4.72 million people being employed. Meanwhile, the number of people working for hire accounted for over 1.52 million people as of Aug.1, 888,800 people working in the public sector and 632,300 people - in the private sector.
The number of workers employed in the oil sector amounted to 34,600 people and 1.49 million people in non-oil sector. As of Sept.1, it was registered that there are 34,400 unemployed people in Azerbaijan, 37.8 percent of them being women.
The average monthly amount of unemployment compensation in Azerbaijan amounts to 241.8 manats.
Awareness on ‘Made in Azerbaijan’ to be raised
Azerbaijan has been recently paying great attention to the development of non-oil sector, Rufat Mammadov, head of the Azerbaijan Export and Investment Promotion Foundation (AZPROMO), said in an interview with Trend.
“Much was done for it, as well as in terms of improving the business sphere and reducing bureaucratic obstacles to business,” he said.
Mammadov added that as a result, a very strong cluster of companies, producing goods for foreign markets and products with great export potential, was formed in Azerbaijan.
The decree on mechanisms of helping the exporters, signed by Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, is historic, as the exporters are to be supported to increase production for foreign markets, he added.
“In particular, this provides an opportunity to strengthen Azerbaijan’s positions in the markets where the country is already present, as well as to find a niche in the markets where the country has not been represented yet, that is, to find new market segments for selling the country’s products,” he added.
“We have already started discussing this issue with Azerbaijani producers,” he said. “We already have such experience.”
“We think it is firstly necessary to represent Azerbaijani products in Duty Free shops at the biggest airports in Europe, Asia, the US and others, that is where we can reach a large number of consumers,” Mammadov said. “The Azerbaijani products in Duty Free shops will give us an opportunity to increase awareness about the country’s products, even in the countries where Azerbaijani products are not supplied.”
He added that, of course, while supplying the products to foreign markets, a producer must find a partner.
“Today, the lion’s share of Azerbaijan’s non-oil export accounts for the country’s agricultural and food products, which are mainly sold in shops and supermarkets,” he added. “At this stage, our exporters also need the state support.”
“Promotion of the access for Azerbaijani products to foreign stores will be one of the mechanisms,” he said. “This mechanism envisages the creation of some racks with ‘Made in Azerbaijan’ branded products in foreign stores.”
“Supply of our products to Duty Free shops will be also supported,” Mammadov said. “Of course, to enter the foreign markets it is necessary to get various certificates, patents, registration of trade marks in the target markets.”
He said that therefore one of the mechanisms will be directed at supporting the entrepreneurs with the necessary certification.
“Fifty percent of the amount spent on a certificate, a patent or a trademark, will be compensated to the exporters, provided that the amount of support does not exceed 5,000 manats,” Mammadov added.
“To reach the end consumer, the consumer should know about the product,” he said. “For this purpose, the media are used.”
“In this regard, one of the mechanisms is directed at raising awareness about the ‘Made in Azerbaijan’ brand,” he said. “Certain products, for example, Azerbaijani wines, Azerbaijani honey, Azerbaijani carpets and so on will be branded.”
“All these mechanisms are based on international practice,” he said. “Creation of these mechanisms is based on a thorough and in-depth analysis.”
“We have examined the best experience in supporting the exporters over the last 1.5-2 years,” he added.
“We explored the practice of such leading countries in this area as Turkey, Australia, Kazakhstan and European countries,” he added. “We thoroughly examined their experience and I would like to stress that the new mechanisms include the best global practice, which will give immediate results.”