Azerbaijan’s Prime Minister Artur Rasizade summarized the main outcomes of the country's development in 2015, speaking at a plenary session of the Azerbaijani parliament dedicated to the discussion of a report on the Cabinet of Ministers’ activity in 2015.
Azerbaijan’s National Entrepreneurship Support Fund issued soft loans worth 1.7 billion manats to entrepreneurs between 2004 and 2015. Last year, more than 5000 entrepreneurs received around 250 million manats on preferential terms.
"The number of businesses increased by 10.7% up to 84,000, while the number of individual entrepreneurs rose by 11% to 577,000 people during the year," Trend cited Rasizade as saying.
16 billion manats were transferred to the fixed capital in 2015, and more than 55% of this amount accounted for the non-oil sector. "The annual inflation rate was fixed at 4%, which indicates that, despite the difficulties in the financial and banking sector, the Azerbaijani government and the central bank could keep the inflation at a single-digit level," the prime minister noted.
Artur Rasizade said that all social projects, the main state programs, priority projects were implemented through the state budget revenues in the last year. Azerbaijan's GDP grew by 1.1%, the growth of non-oil sector amounted to 10%.
Investments in the land reclamation and irrigation of Azerbaijan amounted to 490 million manats. The agricultural production in Azerbaijan increased by 6.6%. In 2015 the export of fruit and vegetables rose by 7.2% to $312 million.
The head of government said that special efforts were directed at the defense sector in 2015. The government has allocated 3.3 billion manats to improve the army and strengthen the material-technical base. He added that about 1500 officers received apartments in 2015.
The Prime Minister noted that today Azerbaijan produces over 1 thousand types of military products, Interfaks.az reports.
According to Rasizade, such measures are due to the ongoing Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
The deputy editor-in-chief of 'Trend' on the economy, Ilaha Mammadli, noted in conversation with a correspondent of Vestnik Kavkaza that the measures to support Azerbaijani business taken by the state are demonstrating high efficiency. "Measures taken by the Azerbaijani government are consistent. Due to recent changes aimed at supporting small and medium-sized businesses, in the legislation there are new conditions for creating enterprises and attracting investment," she stressed.
As a result, the government is able to ensure GDP growth, despite the significant drop in oil prices. "More than 60% of this amount is accounted for by the non-oil sector. The additional measures were introduced with regard to the export of Azerbaijani products," Ilaha Mammadli said.
The ex-deputy minister for the economy of Azerbaijan Oktay Akhverdiyev recalled that the current results of the government's work to support business were forming over the past ten years. "All this time the Entrepreneurship Support Fund has issued loans on preferential terms. In 2016 the budget is providing 250 million manats on lending to business. Non-bank credit organizations are also contributing, issuing around 500 million manats for short-term loans," the expert noted.
Oktay Akhverdiyev stressed that support for the development of small and medium-sized businesses in the country is one of the key points for the Azerbaijani leadership. "Today the share of small and medium-sized businesses has doubled in comparison with the period 10 years ago," he concluded.
