Azerbaijan has confirmed the State Program (SP) on the development of industry in 2015-2020, the implementation of which will make industry the main engine of economic growth.
The program provides for the modernization of industry and improvement of its structure, training of highly qualified personnel, which ultimately should lead to an increase in the export potential of the non-oil industries, the expansion of high-tech, energy-efficient and competitive production and high value-added products.
The main objective of the industry is transfer from import substitution to export-oriented model of industrial development based on local raw materials, regardless of the size of the local market. An example of this is the creation of facilities for the production of cement that will export the excess production.
As part of the SP, new capacities will be created in the fields of metallurgy, oil and gas processing, petrochemicals and chemicals. The government believes that the production of basic products in the fields of metallurgy and petrochemical industry will create preconditions for the formation of many businesses that will produce the final product.
Development of metallurgy should improve the supply of raw materials in shipbuilding and engineering, including petroleum engineering. The document stresses that in case of need there should be provided close involvement of the state in the process of establishing heavy industry.
The state has to support industrial production plans to pursue a flexible tariff policy on regulation of energy prices, which will be accompanied by favorable tax and customs regimes, as well as exchange rate policy of the local currency. Mechanisms will be established to encourage investments in non-oil industry.
The state will also expand opportunities for concessional lending and leasing in the sector, will take on the creation of an external infrastructure support not only in the special economic zones, industrial parks and industrial districts, but also beyond.
It is expected that the industrial parks created by the state (Hi-Tech Park, Sumgayit Chemical-industrial and Balakhani Industrial Park), complex steel production, as well as private industrial complexes (Sumgayit Technology Park, Aluminum Complex Det-Al) will start to work on their design capacity. --08D-
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