Azerbaijan cuts number of business inspections by 1,000 times

As many as 50 inspections of business activities were carried out in Azerbaijan in January-September 2016, while the figure was 50,000 for the first nine months of last year, the country’s Economy Minister Shahin Mustafayev told reporters in Baku Oct. 19.

"Recently, Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev has taken very significant steps to promote entrepreneurship, support local production and promote non-oil exports,” said the minister.

"First of all, I’d like to note that very important measures such as suspension of inspections of business activities for two years [with the exception of cases related to corruption, threat to health and life, national security and economic interests], reducing the number of licenses required for business and others were taken as part of the economic reforms.”

At the same time, specific rates of customs duties were introduced regarding the import of 84 products in order to support domestic production, Mustafayev added.

"Customs duties were changed regarding the products in which we are self-sufficient,” he said. "This process will be long, we will be carrying out analyzes and as production of certain goods in the country reaches a high level of self-sufficiency, we will be applying specific rates of customs duties for their imports.”

The minister also touched upon the measures to support the non-oil exports, having noted that the signed documents create a new legal regime for exports, and that will significantly increase the supplies of Azerbaijani products abroad in the coming years.

"By supporting entrepreneurs, Azerbaijani government is doing important work, but the owners themselves should also take the necessary measures: they should pay special attention to the quality of products, their compliance with international standards, and so on,” said the minister.