Azernews.Az

By Nigar Orujova

Azerbaijan will be able to provide financing for expenditures of the state budget from the proceeds of the non-oil sector in the future,Economy and Industry Minister Shahin Mustafayev said at an October 20 event dedicated to World Statistics Day.

Azerbaijan will continue its policy of diversification of the economy, he said. “The work will continue in this direction. We will develop high potential areas, but unused earlier.”

The minister noted that one of these areas is the transport sector.

“This area has great potential,” said Mustafayev. “We have to realize the transit potential of Azerbaijan. The relevant work to improve the competitiveness of the North-South and East-West transport corridors is currently underway, which will increase non-oil revenues of the country, and I believe that in the coming years, we will see the results of our work.”

The minister said that the share of the non-oil sector in Azerbaijan's GDP is growing every year.

“Over the last nine months of 2015, the figure was 68 percent, and next year, it is projected to reach 71 percent,” said Mustafayev.

The development of the private sector, entrepreneurship and the improvement of the business sphere are among Azerbaijan’s main priorities, Mustafayev stressed.

“The importance of entrepreneurship development was also emphasized by President Ilham Aliyev and work in this direction has already begun,” he said.

Mustafayev said that the decisions taken to promote the development of entrepreneurship are revolutionary for Azerbaijan.

“The law on the suspension of business inspections is a revolutionary solution and very important for improving and creating a more favorable business environment,” said Mustafayev.

At the same time, the reduction of the number of business licenses, as well as the simplification of rules of their issuance and the transfer of the right to issue licenses to the ASAN service will also have a positive impact on business, the minister said.

Mustafayev went on to add that Azerbaijan will continue to work to improve business environment in the country, and that a number of documents are already being prepared for that.

“In particular, additional measures to encourage export will be taken,” he said. “At the moment, the government is already working on this. The relevant documents for the promotion of exports will be prepared in the near future. Azerbaijan has already gotten rid of the dependence on imports in some areas, and export potential has already been formed in these areas.”

He also said that a logistics center providing the storage and sale of agricultural and other food products, scheduled to open in mid-November, was built in Aktau (Kazakhstan) as part of a set of measures for stimulating exports.

President Ilham Aliyev signed a decree simplifying licensing procedures for entrepreneurship and encouraging business transparency on October 19.

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Nigar Orujova is AzerNews’s staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @o_nigar

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