Azerbaijan Deteriorates Position on Real Economy

The World Bank and the International Finance Corporation prepared a rating of "Doing-Business - 2015: Understanding the regulation of the activities of small and medium-sized enterprises", where Azerbaijan among the 189 countries ranked 80th (lag 10 positions compared to last year analogue). The country's immediate neighbors are the islands of Fiji and Trinidad and Tobago. Among the former Soviet republics Georgia and Estonia are in the lead (15 and 17 positions, respectively). Latvia and Lithuania are at 23 and 24th positions. Information for those who talk about the moribund regime in Armenia - despite the lack of real resources, on the degree of business promotion our enemies are ahead of us - they are in the 45th row on the table of ranks. Russia, Moldova and Kazakhstan hold 62, 63 and 77th positions, also ahead of Azerbaijan.

The official online resource (http://russian.doingbusiness.org/~/media/GIAWB/Doing%20Business/Documents/Annual-Reports/English/DB15-Full-Report.pdf) believes that the country's most improved position is with the registration of enterprises – it is at the 12th place. According to the report published on the website, Azerbaijan last year spent three successful reforms. These reforms concern starting business, registering property and paying taxes. For a number of indicators Azerbaijan has improved its place in the global ranking.

In particular, on the indicator "registering property" Azerbaijan took the 10th place, "tax" - the 33rd, "dealing with construction permits" – the 150th, "access to power" - the 159th, "the development of cross-border trade"- the 162nd," performance of contracts "- the 31st, "investor protection"- the 51st, "solving problems of insolvency and bankruptcy proceedings transparency" - 94th,"getting credit"- 104th, etc.

  In addition, it has improved its position on taxation - 77th against 79th and International Trade – 166^th  against 168^th in the previous year.

However, when getting a building permit, the average, especially small business faces great challenges because of paperwork and 28 mandatory procedures, stretching for about 9 months. So Azerbaijan became the 180^th (in the previous year it  was the 179^th).

   Recall, as of January 1, 2014 (the reference to the State Statistics Committee) there were registered 465,830 business entities, including individuals, of which 210,643 were private enterprises. On an average annual registered, approximately one-third of the four companies hide the number of their employees and as a result, the social security fund falls short of mandatory deductions.

Most popular is the small trade sector - 69.6% of the private enterprises are busy with this, while 10.1% of the companies prefer transport services, 3.5% - hospitality, and so on – the descending line.

The total rating «Doing-Business-2015", including Azerbaijan, is based on 10 items.

The 10 countries most favorable and accessible to entrepreneurs are Singapore, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Denmark, South Korea, Norway, the US, the UK, Finland and Austria.

The list also includes countries with a zero collection of points. --17D-