Azerbaijan invests over $4.7bn on regions’ development

By Azernews

By Rasana Gasimova

Investments made on Azerbaijan’s regions exceeded 8 billion manats ($4.7 billion) in 2019, Economy Minister Mikayil Jabbarov said on February 3, while summing up the results of the first year of implementation of "The State Program on socio-economic development of the regions of Azerbaijan in 2019-2023".

“In 2019, 7.2 billion manats were allocated for the implementation of ‘The State Program on socio-economic development of the regions of Azerbaijan in 2019-2023’. In addition, upon the president’s instructions, about 1 billion manats ($588.2 million) were additionally allocated for these purposes,” Jabbarov noted.

He emphasized that creation of industrial parks and quarters in the regions gave impetus to their industrialization.

Jabbarov stressed that the residents of industrial zones have so far invested a total of 6 billion manats ($3.5 billion), which allowed creating more than 9,000 new jobs.

“Last year, the total production in industrial zones increased 2.6 times. Moreover, the Economy Ministry has issued a document on encouraging investments in projects, total investments in which exceed 4 billion manats ($2.3 billion), ”Jabbarov said.

He also noted that last year, 1,573 business entities received loans worth 175 million manats ($102.9 million) through the Entrepreneurship Development Fund.

The development of the regions o is an important part of the successfully implemented strategy of sustainable social and economic development in the country.

Note that the third program on the socioeconomic development of the regions for 2014-2018 has been over-fulfilled.

As a result of the program, the country’s non-oil sector grew by eight percent, while the non-oil industry by 32 percent, more than two million new jobs were created, of which 1.5 million of jobs are permanent. Preferential loans worth more than one billion manats were given to over 16,000 entrepreneurs.