Azernews.Az

By Abdul Kerimkhanov

The monetary policy of Azerbaijan aims at creating a stable socio-economic environment based on low and stable inflation, which will accelerate further economic growth in 2019.

The Entrepreneurship Development Fund has issued concessional loans to entrepreneurs in Azerbaijan for eight million manats ($4.7 million) from the beginning of 2019, the Deputy Minister of Economy of Azerbaijan, Sahib Mammadov, told reporters on February 28.

He added that these loans were provided for the implementation of the projects by 80 entrepreneurs.

"The loans will mainly be directed to the development of agriculture and the processing industry development. As a result, new jobs will be created," Mammadov stated.

The deputy minister noted that by the end of 2018, the fund issued concessional loans worth 160.2 million manats ($94.2 million).

Mammadov informed that more than 35,000 business entities in Azerbaijan have been granted concessional loans worth 2.2 billion manats ($1.3 billion) over the past 15 years.

As he said, loans worth 1.2 billion manats ($706 million) were issued at the expense of previously returned funds.

The deputy minister noted that this shows that investments in the real sector are yielding results.

He declared that at present the share of the private sector in the country's GDP exceeds 80 percent, and in the sphere of employment this figure is 76 percent.

Mammadov told that the number of registered business entities in the country exceeded 970,000, as of January 1, 2019.

‘’In connection with the medium and small businesses’ development in Azerbaijan, appropriate changes were made to the tax legislation, various incentives were offered. Speaking of institutional reforms, we can note the creation of the Agency for the Development of Small and Medium-Sized Businesses, whose main goal is to support promising projects, support in developing relations with partners," said the deputy minister.

As he stressed, an equally important role is played by the Entrepreneurship Development Fund under the Ministry, which has implemented large-scale work to support entrepreneurs.

The Entrepreneurship Development Fund was established on the basis of the National Fund for the Support of Entrepreneurship, operating in the country since 1997. This year, the fund plans to issue soft loans worth 160 million manats. ($94.1 million).

Recently, at a meeting on economic and social issues, the President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev openly announced that the issue of problem loans would soon be resolved.

Some of the responsibility for loans will be assumed by the state, the other part - by banks, and the rest - by the lenders themselves.

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Abdul Kerimkhanov is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @AbdulKerim94

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