Co-op of Azerbaijan and Black Sea countries in field of SMEs has huge potential

By  Trend

There is a huge potential for business cooperation between Azerbaijan and the Black Sea countries in the field of small and medium entrepreneurship (SME), the Chairman of the Board of the Agency for Small and Medium Entrepreneurship Development under the Ministry of Economy of Azerbaijan Orkhan Mammadov said.

He made the remarks November 2 during the international business forum in Baku dedicated to the development of small and medium entrepreneurship in the Black Sea region.

“In order to fulfill this potential, the members of the Organization of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation should make more efforts and promote the SME development. Although our agency is a new institution, we are ready to cooperate with similar agencies of the BSEC countries and we invite everyone to cooperate with us,” Mammadov said.

Mammadov noted that the sustainable development of SME is a priority of the economic policy of Azerbaijan, the successful reforms are being carried out in this direction. In particular, the SME Development Agency was established by the initiative of President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev.

"Despite the fact that not much time has passed since the establishment of our agency, we are already implementing many economic initiatives. First, we are working on the creation of SME Houses, where G2B (government to business) and B2B (business to business) services will be provided. We are also working on the creation of the Centers on the development of SME, some of which have already opened in Imishli, Masalli and Bilasuvar regions," he said.

The head of the agency said the entrepreneurs showed great interest in the Centers from the very first days of their functioning.

At the same time, Mammadov added, the agency is ready to share its experience in this area with other countries.