RESPONSIBLE ENTREPRENEURSHIP VISION DEVELOPMENT AND ETHICS

Government support for entrepreneurship: case of Azerbaijan 441
Government legislative support
In September, 1994 with the initiative of president Haydar Aliyev, international conference
on “Entrepreneurship Strategy and Economic Reconstruction” held in Baku, Azerbaijan was
a start point of new era for entrepreneurs in Azerbaijan. Additionally, the goal of two State
Programs on Entrepreneurship Development in 1993-1995 and 1997-2000 were to enhance
entrepreneurship. It is also worth to mention the decree on “regulation of state control and elimination
of unneeded inspection on production, service and financial sectors” signed June 17,
1996 that gave entrepreneurs clear idea of government’s approach to entrepreneurship.
Since November 1, 2015 all types of inspections of entrepreneurs have been suspended
for 2 years and all type of licenses to entrepreneurs could be received through “Easy Service”
Government Agency, which makes the process much efficient and less bureaucratic.
Number of fields requiring license was reduced from 59 to 37 and most particularly for life
lasting and amount of government duty reduced 2 times in Baku and 4 times in regions.
State Law (1999) on “Government Support on Small Entrepreneurs” reveals government
orientation on entrepreneur activities. Along with background of financial and legislative support,
Article 13 of the Law has given clear order to the provincial authorities to realize more
than 15% of government projects through small entrepreneurs. “State Program on development
of small and mid-size entrepreneurships in Azerbaijan Republic in 1997-2000” and “State
Support Program on development of small and mid-size entrepreneurships in Azerbaijan
Republic 2002-2005” were first and foremost government act on this sphere. Another act for
improving legislative background of entrepreneurs functioning is making simple and minimal
of license documents, and giving all authorities to “Easy Service” government new onestop
shop starting 2012.
To establish an entrepreneurship infrastructure, government built legal framework for privatization.
As a result, 1996-2015 years, 46759 small enterprises were privatized. To increase
efficiency of entrepreneurs’ access to legal documents, “Electronic information portal on permissions”
was launched on October 26, 2011, which gives preliminary knowledge to
entrepreneurs and startups how to manage government documents from one source.
Azerbaijan Export and Investments Promotion Foundation (AZPROMO), as a joint publicprivate-initiative,
was established by the Ministry of Economy in 2003 with the aim of stimulating
expansion of country’s exports to the overseas markets, as well as attracting foreign
investments in the non-oil sectors of the economy (MERA, 2003).
Another important step in stimulating entrepreneurship was creation of Entrepreneurship
Council under President of Republic of Azerbaijan, established on May 2, 2003 with 46 foreign-local
entrepreneur members in order to discuss current problems of entrepreneurship environment
and to bring solution & advice and support packages to the President (ECPRA, 2003).
Baku Business Training Center, an agency under the Ministry of Economy operating since
2007, aims to expand entrepreneurial activities, and held 132 trainings, roundtables, seminars
especially for start-ups and entrepreneurs with 3000 audiences in 2015 (BBTC, 2015).
As a result of cooperation between the Ministry of Economy of Azerbaijan Republic and
Germany Federal Ministry of Economy and Technology, 240 entrepreneurs (of which 49 are
women) were sent to a one month training and more than 40 seminars, conferences and trainings
held during 2009-2015 years (BBTC, 2015).