“World Forum on Small and Medium Entrepreneurship” was organized in Baku

On November 16, the “World Forum on Small and Medium Entrepreneurship” was held in Baku with the support of the Ministry of Economy, Small and Medium Business Development Agency under the Ministry (KOBIA) and the International Council for Small Business (ICSB).

Ayman ElTarabishy, the president of “SME World Forum”, Sahib Mammadov, deputy minister of economy, Orkhan Mammadov, head of the Small and Medium Business Development Agency, Mammad Musayev, president of the National Confederation of Entrepreneurs (Employers) Organizations of the Republic of Azerbaijan, made opening speeches at the forum.

The president of the Confederation mentioned that small and medium enterprises play the main role in the formation of the value chain in Azerbaijan.

The year of 2023 is full of significant events for our country. In the past 20 years, Mr. President has strengthened the political stability, which was established by national leader Heydar Aliyev in 1993. As a result of the second Karabakh war and the local anti-terrorist operation held this year, Azerbaijan fully restored its sovereign rights all over its lands. With this, we solved the most important issue – our territorial integrity.

The next stage is the integration of Karabakh and Eastern Zangazur into the economy of Azerbaijan and the development of the country’s economy, and at this stage we entrepreneurs and businessmen have a great responsibility.

It is well known that small and medium-sized enterprises, including micro-enterprises, are important engines of innovation, growth, and job creation in high-income and developing economies. Small and medium-sized entrepreneurs in the country, in one hand, solve the problem of unemployment by creating new jobs, and on the other hand, by creating a competitive environment, they provide quality service and low prices. Small businesses provide additional stability to the economy by responding more flexibly to changes in consumer demand and market conditions.

National Confederation of Entrepreneurs (Employers) Organizations of the Republic of Azerbaijan is a strategic partner of KOBIA in development of medium and small entrepreneurship in our country. The Confederation, which will be 25 years old soon, unites small and medium enterprises along with large holdings. Let’s not forget that the main role in the formation of the value chain is played by small and medium enterprises.

Confederation represents our entrepreneurs in a number of international business organizations, including the Islamic Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture, which represents 57 countries, the Turkic Chamber of Commerce and Industry, which unites 7 countries, and the International Labor Organization, which unites employers of all countries. According to the International Labor Organization’s report on Transnational Corporations, the best social responsibility project of any large business is the development of small businesses in its value chain.

If we look at the economic processes and trends going on in the world today, we can see that digitalization has exceptional role in the development of small and medium businesses. Small and medium-sized businesses can easily sell their services and products on global online trading platforms such as Amazon and Alibaba. Therefore, providing support for the quality parameters and branding of small and medium enterprises in Azerbaijan, and supporting them to enter digital sales channels should be among our main directions. The Confederation is ready to support our businessmen for access to Islamic countries and brother Turkic countries as a favorable market.

The development of entrepreneurship, further improvement of the working environment is one of the main priorities in the field of accelerating the economy of Azerbaijan. Up tp now, various measures have been taken for the development of entrepreneurship, the increase of state aid, and the creation of legal protection systems for rights. The work done in the field of entrepreneurship reduced the dependence of the country’s economy on the oil sector and gave an important impetus to the development of the non-oil sector. We believe that it is possible to respond to new economic challenges by increasing the development and efficiency of the public-private dialogue, and we are always ready to cooperate in this direction as a representative of the private sector.

I wish good luck to the forum and thank all the organizers for the invitation.