Entrepreneurship Development Foundation
Public Finance Monitoring Center
Baku Political Research and Advocacy Center
With support of
Center for International Private Enterprise (Washington D.C., USA)
National Endowment for Democracy
NATIONAL bUSINESS AGENDA
for the improvement of the business climate
in Azerbaijan in 2009
(1st edition, September 2008)
CONTENTS
|Introduction ……………………………………………………………………………. |3 |
|1. Institutional reform …………………………………………………………….. ...view middle of the document...
The development of the infrastructure | |
|of small businesses …………………………………………………………………... |15 |
|10. Tightening of punishment measures for non-accounting commercial activity ……………………………………………………………. | |
| |16 |
|11. Streamlining of inspections ………………………………………………... |17 |
|12. To ensure the supremacy of the law and fairness of the courts ………………………………………………………………………………….. | |
| |19 |
|13. Improvement of foreign trade procedures ………………………… |19 |
|14. Social corporate responsibility: from coercion to encouragement …………………………………………………………………… | |
| |20 |
Introduction
The improvement of the business climate in the country is an everyday concern of many world governments. We can cite masses of examples from the experience of the US, British, German, Japanese, French, Turkish and other governments, which testify to their constant desire to improve the attractiveness of investments for local and foreign capital. There is a constant need for such a policy regardless of the level of development in this or that country. It is especially important to make systematic efforts to improve the business climate in transitional governments, including in Azerbaijan.
Private entrepreneurship has been developing in the country after it regained its independence in 1991. This was furthered by the policy of switching from the Soviet economic system to a market economy and programs related to this policy and the government’s measures to adopt new laws, create market institutions, macroeconomic stability, secure large-scale foreign investments in energy and other spheres of the economy, privatize small and medium-sized enterprises, hand over land for private ownership and other measures.
Today there are more than 60 thousand private companies in the country – small, medium-sized and large. Small enterprises account for 20% per cent. Moreover, entrepreneurial activity without setting up a legal entity is quite developed. There are more than 260 thousand such businessmen in the country today.
The share of the private sector in GDP is 84 per cent today (including the activity of foreign oil companies).
There are more...
