Jabbarov: Business environment development brings new challenges

Azerbaijan's entrepreneurship development has gone through several important stages, Economy Minister Mikayil Jabbarov said at an event titled "Entrepreneurship development means a strong economy" in Baku, Report informs.

Jabbarov said Azerbaijan has achieved major success in its economic development first under National Leader Heydar Aliyev and later under President Ilham Aliyev.

"Today, state-business relations are an extremely important issue. The development of the business environment and stronger competition have created different challenges. We may no longer consider the framework or conditions that existed in the past sufficient today. This is natural, and this is how it should be," he said.

The minister also said the share of the private sector in Azerbaijan's gross domestic product is growing year by year.

"When viewed as an indicator of efficiency, we see that in most cases, the return on investments made in the private sector and the creation of added value are more effective compared with state-owned enterprises. The new stage of the economy calls on the private sector to independently enter export markets and be ready for competition. The stage we have reached and the challenges we face are not limited to issues such as economic diversification or the oil and gas sector accounting for 30%. The private sector should focus not only on state orders or state-related activity, but also on bringing its products both to the domestic market and, most importantly, to export markets. This naturally opens up new opportunities for entrepreneurs on the one hand and creates new challenges on the other," he said.