Azerbaijan issues concessional loans worth 63.3M manats in 1H17

By Azernews

By Sara Israfilbayova

Azerbaijan is working on the creation of 38 agrarian parks, the total cost of which is 207 million manats ($121.7 million).

Economy Minister Shahin Mustafayev made the remarks at an expanded meeting of the ministry's board, dedicated to the results of the first half of 2017.

The Minister stressed that the agro-parks are being created in Samukh, Goranboy, Aghjabadi, Shabran, Salyan, Shamakhi, Fizuli, Jalilabad and Ismayilly districts, to the establishment of which the National Fund for Entrepreneurship Support (NFES) allocated 76.1 million manats ($44.7 million).

He went on to say that currently, 14 modern livestock complexes with total area of 37,300 square meters are being built in 12 regions of the country, 24 large grain farms with total area of 120,300 hectares in 17 regions, 32 large farms with a total area of 44,000 square meters in 20 regions.

Addressing the meeting Mustafayev noted that in just 6 months the NFES issued concessional loans in the amount of 63.3 million manats ($37.2 million) to 690 entrepreneurs, adding that investment projects, which will be implemented at the expense of these funds, will help to open more than 2,300 new jobs.

To date, more than 33,500 entrepreneurs received concessional loans in the amount of more than 2 billion manats ($1.2 billion).

Moreover, the government created mechanisms to support competitive production, such as issuance of document of investment incentives.

Azerbaijani businessmen became eligible to get the investment incentives documents following the approval of amendments proposed to the Tax Code of the country.

Under the investment incentives document, half of the revenue of an individual entrepreneur, profits of legal entity are exempted from income tax for seven years. Import of equipment for the implementation of the projects is also exempt of VAT and customs duties.

Minister stressed that to date173 documents of investment incentives have been issued for implementation of projects worth 1.6 billion manats ($940.5 million) and added that thanks to this projects 11,000 people will be employed

Moreover,1.3 million manats ($764.2 million) have been returned to Azerbaijani exporters since early 2017, and 200.4 million manats ($117.8 million) in 2016 as part of the program on the refund of a part of expenditures for the export of non-oil products, the minister added.

The state refunds 3-6 percent of the customs value of goods to non-oil exporters within the framework of mechanisms on promoting exports of non-oil products.

Further he spoke about creation of Industrial Zones in Aghdam, Aghstafa and Gazakh regions of the republic.

Currently, work is underway on creating two industrial zones in Azerbaijan’s Masally and Neftchala districts. The minister noted that 3 enterprises already operate in the Neftchala Industrial Zone and other six enterprises are planned to start operating in 2017.

The design work, he said, has already been completed in the Masally Industrial Zone and the creation of infrastructure will begin soon.

There is very high interest in this Industrial Zone, and as of now, 33 projects worth over 33 million manats ($19.4 million), which can be implemented in the industrial zone, have been presented to the Economy Ministry.

Along with Industrial Zones, five industrial parks have been created in Azerbaijan: Sumgayit Chemical Industrial Park, Balakhani, Garadagh, Mingachevir and Pirallahi Industrial Parks.

Investors, engaged in industrial parks, are exempted from the value added tax (VAT), customs duties, as well as contributions on compulsory state social insurance to seven years.

Encouraging business doing in the country is one of the priorities for the Azerbaijani government, which supports entrepreneurs through creating necessary conditions for the development of a healthy business environment in the country.

Further Mustafayev stressed that Azerbaijani companies will take part in a tender for the construction of a gas pipeline in Pakistan, adding that preliminary agreement was reached on the results of the export mission to Pakistan, which was held this year.

In total, within the promotion of the Made in Azerbaijan brand 8 export missions were organized to China, the UAE, Germany, Pakistan, Qatar, Kazakhstan and Afghanistan.

In addition, within the framework of export missions, Azerbaijan has already concluded agreements on the supply of wine to China, apple and pomegranate juice in the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Oman and Malaysia, industrial paints in Kazakhstan.