Among the main tasks set by the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan are creating a favorable business environment in Azerbaijan, improving legislation and administrative procedures in the field of entrepreneurship and state-business relations, regulating business activities, increasing efficiency and ensuring transparency in this area, and measures in this direction are taken consistently.
One of the areas of regulation of the business sphere is the licensing of business activities. Thanks to the reforms carried out in this area, the number of licensed activities has been significantly reduced. As part of the reforms in our country, the Law “On Licenses and Permits” was adopted, and along with licenses, a list of permits was defined.
The reforms reduced the number of activities requiring a license from 59 to 36, while the number of permits was set at 86. The number of licenses issued by the Ministry of Economy is 23.
The period for issuing licenses has been reduced from 15 to 10 working days, and the amount of the state duty has been dropped by 2 times. Currently, the legislation establishes issuance of licenses indefinitely, with the exception of cellular (mobile) communication services.
By the relevant Presidential Decree, licenses are issued by the Ministry of Economy through ASAN Service centers from November 2, 2015. Since March 14, 2018, licenses have been issued through the Licenses and Permits portal. To further facilitate the work of entrepreneurs, the issuance of licenses is also carried out through SMB Houses since February 2020.
To date, the Ministry has issued 12,913 licenses. In addition, 2987 electronic licenses were issued through the "Licenses and Permits" portal.
In total, up to 65% of licenses issued, including 85% of licenses issued in the last period of 2022, are new licenses, indicating the expansion of entrepreneurial activity as a result of reforms. In line with the global challenges of the pandemic, the growth of e-commerce has influenced the growth of express mail licenses, and more than 140 entrepreneurs have received licenses for express mail services in the past period of 2020-2021 and 2022.
