November 05, 2014. Today the Round Table on the theme of “Identifying administrative barriers faced by small business owners engaged in the production in greenhouses” was held by the Economic Research Center in the conference room of the National Confederation of
Entrepreneurs (Employers’) Organizations of Azerbaijan Republic within the framework of the project “Micro-Enterprise Support” implemented by the Entrepreneurship Development Foundation with the financial support of USAID. Representatives of the private sector, lawyers and experts attended the round table.
Welcoming participants of the round table, Mr. Sabit Bagirov - chairman of EDF briefly informed about the project and he noted that the ERC Expert Group carrying out the research on the current state of the greenhouse business, had identified administrative barriers to business owners. Chairman of the Foundation noted that discussions will be around the issues such as results of the research, findings, and recommendations and invited Mr. Vahid Maharramov – the Head of the Department of Agrarian Issues of ERC to give his speech.
On the basis of official statistics, Mr. Vahid Maharramov reviewed the developmental dynamics of produced vegetables and melons under greenhouse conditions and mentioned the progressive international experience in this field and talked about the possibilities of increasing production. The expert noted that, despite the fact that Azerbaijan has great potential and favorable climate for the development of this business, the production of vegetable products and its productivity is lower than in other countries.
Thereafter, Galib Togrul - the member of the research team spoke about the legislative requirements relating to the registration, construction activities of greenhouses and he noted the challenges faced by entrepreneurs in the field of obtaining technical terms concerning gas, water, and electricity supply. At the end of his speech, he reported the results of the research and gave his recommendations. He mentioned that most greenhouses are not registered in the Ministry of Taxes, as well as some greenhouses do not meet the technical requirements.
Thereafter, in accordance with the agenda, both experts answered questions of participants of the round table. In the discussion phase, representatives of the private sector discussed problems concerning greenhouses and important work to be done in this field. Leonardus Sweegers – the dutch businessman, talked about the Netherlands’ experience in the greenhouse business and positive results of the application of modern technology to this business field.
The report: “Fair Competition is the basis of the market economy” Author: Eldar Gojayev
