ASK Condemns Attacks on Metal Processing Enterprises in Baku

Mid-July did not abate the tension between the business entities involved in the production of metal in the city of Baku. A group of young people looking like athletes attacked small businesses with the requirement to suspend their activities and confiscate the finished product.

Local media keeps the focus on the event. Employers argue that the attacks were organized by LLC Baku Steel Company, which tries to use physical violence methods to expand its presence in the market of steel industry. The entrepreneurs asked the law enforcement agencies to protect them against the attacks. However, the General Prosecutor's Office and the Ministry of Interior are not taking any effective action. The press service of the Ministry of Economic Development told Turan that they have no information, because the entrepreneurs do not seek help.

In turn, the heads of Baku Steel Company (BSC) denied the allegations against them and said that they are not implicated in the events taking place.

The co-founder of Azerbaijani-Turkish joint venture Ahmed-Atahan Nazim Mammadov said that the attacks on the part of BSC affected more than 20 companies doing business in the field of molding and processing of steel. BSC Director General Rasim Mammadov met with competitors, and said that everything is going on with the consent of the government. Nazim Mammadov noted that there is no information about the results of investigations into offenses by law enforcement agencies. He also said that unfair competition on the metal market matured 1.5 years ago, when the BSC with the help of the State Customs Committee prevented delivery of ferroalloys to the country by sheet metal shops.

On the question from Turan the Acting Secretary General of the Confederation of Entrepreneurs (ASK) Mehman Mehmanov said that the employers did not address to this social organization for settling this conflict. "Therefore, I can only express my own position on the matter. I believe that unlawful interference with business entities by competitors is against the government strategy on the development of business and the non-oil sector, casting a shadow on the business climate in the country," said the head of the Confederation.

Mehmanov believes that, in any case, the constitutional rights of entrepreneurs must be protected, and if there is a crime, the perpetrators should be held criminally responsible. -08B-