Azernews.Az

By Mirsaid Ibrahimzade

Azerbaijan implements active work in the social sphere, including the self-employment program, which aroused great interest of population – this is evidenced by the number of growing applications.

The income and expenses of the deficit-free Unemployment Insurance Fund are proposed to increase by 15 million manats ($8.82 million).

For 2019, the income and expenses of the Fund are planned at the level of 83.45 million manats ($49.08 million). Thus, the budget of the Fund will be 98.45 million manats ($57.91 million).

At the meeting on June 21, the Parliamentary Committee on Economic Policy discussed the relevant amendments to the law “On the budget of the Unemployment Insurance Fund for 2019”.

According to the project, additional income is planned to be fully ensured by means of the funds remaining at the disposal of the Fund, which were transferred from the state budget in 2018.

In the structure of additional expenses, one million manats ($0.58 million) is planned to be allocated for the organization of vocational training and additional education, which will reach 2.8 million manats ($1.64 million); and another 14 million manats ($8.23 million) - for the organization of self-employment activities, which will reach 56.41 million manats ($33.18 million).

The self-employment program has been implemented in Azerbaijan since 2016. As part of these measures, the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection of the Population provides low-income families with various assets (goods, materials, livestock) so that they can start their small business.

Last year, 7,000 citizens were attracted to participate in the program. Some 42 million manats ($25 million) were provided for financing the self-employment program this year (35 million manats ($21 million) last year).

Self-employment allows unemployed citizens to exercise their right to socially useful activity. At the same time, the society receives initiative workers, who abandoned the passive-dependent expectation and began active creative work, realized themselves as individuals.

For unemployed people, the self-employment program is an opportunity to become entrepreneurs, masters of their own businesses; and for society - to involve large masses of unemployed citizens in socially useful businesses.

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Mirsaid Ibrahimzade is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @MirsaidIbrahim1

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