The expansion of women`s entrepreneurial activity, the greater involvement of the women in this process are among the global and current trends of modernization. Many countries stimulate the development of this field and seek to provide systematic support for the purpose of further strengthening the most diverse sectors of the economy, maximizing the process of women's socialization.
The extent of effectiveness of women's entrepreneurial activity depends largely on the performance of the business environment in each country. While many of the setbacks faced in entrepreneurship are common, the challenges women face in this field are greater than men. However, modern conditions have boosted the need for women entrepreneurs in the markets of social, information and educational services.
According to sociologists, more than half of women working in the most common professions today are willing to launch their own business. First of all, this is an additional source of economic growth in the country, raising the social level, creating new jobs and increasing self-employment. Protection of women's rights is directly associated with their economic independence. For this reason, the development of women's entrepreneurship is of substantial importance and is quite a pressing matter.
What is the level of development in this field of entrepreneurship in Azerbaijan today?
Statistics, legislation, and various measures implemented exhibit that sufficient conditions have been established for the development of women's entrepreneurship in Azerbaijan: with a promising legal framework, the state pays a great attention to entrepreneurs, significant work is performed towards enhancing their economic potential, providing legal, technical and financial assistance, and granting concessional loan. Research also demonstrate that the number of women entrepreneurs in Azerbaijan has doubled in the last two years.
Head of Shaki SMB Development Center, SMB specialist, Mubariz Guliyev, in his statement to "525", speaking about the opportunities established for women entrepreneurs in Azerbaijan, noted that our country is one of the leading newly independent states with regards to achieving success in the economic field in recent years: "The leading figures of this development are not only men, but also women entrepreneurs play an important role in the process. The role of small and medium enterprises in developing the economy and boosting the internal economic potential of the country is substantial. Population growth determines the arrival of new workers in the labour market. Strengthening the role of women in the economy is one of the 17 goals of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Azerbaijan is one of the first countries to ratify this document. Given the last few years, we can observe that the number of women entrepreneurs is increasing rapidly. This is the result of bringing about level playing field and enabling environment for women. Preliminary data exhibits that the proportion of women actively participating in the country`s socio-economic life is 48.2 % of the total number of employed people. 22 percent of registered private entrepreneurs in the country are women totalling in 250,231. This implies an increase of 68,958 people in the last 3 years and is a successful result. The information provided by the Small and Medium Business Development Agency states that 30.5 percent of women entrepreneurs are registered in Baku, 10.1 percent in Lankaran-Astara, 8.8 percent in Gazakh-Tovuz, and the rest in other economic regions. Among them, women operating in agriculture, trade and other fields prevail."
Recently, the media reported that woman from Azerbaijan entrepreneur Fidan Rustamli was chosen by Forbes as one of the most successful young businesspersons under the age of 30 years old in the "Sports and Games" category. This fact is an important example of the development of the abovementioned sphere.
Jamila Ismayilzade is also an entrepreneur. She is the founder of the Children and Youth Club, a social entrepreneur. She emphasized that she received state support from KOBİA and was invited to many organized events and exhibitions: “I myself was born and raised in a village. I spent most of my time reading books. Books have had life-altering impact on me. Unfortunately, we did not have many fiction books in our house, in fact the library had also very few new books. Therefore, I struggled to get books and read them. Since then, I have always believed that all children should be able to read books easily. However, I did not know how to do that. After becoming a parent and teaching in school for several years, I decided to start a book club for children. Although there are examples of successful social entrepreneurship in our country, since social entrepreneurship is not regulated by law, it is challenging to identify which companies are involved in social entrepreneurship. In general, social entrepreneurship activities are supported by governmental and non-governmental organizations within the scope of supporting small and medium businesses, providing employment and working with vulnerable groups of population. In parallel, the European Union and the UN have been recently conducting educational activities to support the development of social entrepreneurship. The main purpose of our activities is to be a place of intellectual communication for children and young people. Our club offers a library, early development groups, an after-school development program, and summer school services. Our club's library has books in 5 languages (Azerbaijani, German, English, Russian and Turkish). Anyone under the age of 18 can subscribe to the library and get books of their choice. Book discussions, book clubs, meetings with authors, intellectual competitions for different age categories, story hours are offered to subscribers. We also offer free online storytime for our friends who live far away. Some of our activities are paid and some are free. A part of the income is used to organize the activities for children from low-income families and without parental care.”
Studies show that, especially in recent years, the number of women who set up their own business based on their interests, wishes and desires is increasing. The development of women's entrepreneurship helps to enhance the economic and social influence of women and to eliminate gender inequality in society.
Speaking to "525", economist Eyyub Karimli pointed out that there are not any major challenges in the country to engage in entrepreneurship: "At the legal level, both women and men can engage in entrepreneurial initiatives as they please. In our country, certain tax benefits are granted, as well as incentive measures are in place. I believe that there are social problems for women to become entrepreneurs in our country. Basically, the lack of entrepreneurial knowledge of women, the weakness of the entrepreneurial tradition is observed, especially in the districts there are certain problems in the study and implementation of the data base of our women. In addition, lack of financial literacy can also cause certain problems. In this direction, a great burden falls on both state structures and non-governmental organizations. For the purpose of ensuring that more and more women are engaged in entrepreneurship, it is essential to expand their financial and business literacy. I do believe that it should be applied in more districts. Today, our women are predominantly active in household and private family businesses in the regions. However, they are unaware of the fact that how this can be turned into a business. Women have more potential in the field of medium and small entrepreneurship. They mainly opt for the fields of food production, textiles, agriculture, beauty salons and handicrafts, tailoring and creative workshops. So as to engage more women into this process, not only social issues, but also educational and financial issues need to be eliminated."
In the statement provided by KOBİA to "525", it is noted that the expansion of women's entrepreneurship is currently being observed both globally level and domestically. More women are interested in small business and self-employment. According to statistics, about 22 percent of registered private entrepreneurs in Azerbaijan are women, among whom there is a predominance of those operating in agriculture, trade and other fields.
Various support and services are organized by relevant state institutions to encourage women to self-employment and entrepreneurship, promote women's entrepreneurship. In addition, training and seminars on business planning and development, marketing, sales, corporate law, finance, human resources management are held by experienced and professional experts for women entrepreneurs through KOBİA`s SMB development centers, as well as individual and group consulting services are rendered. In 2022 alone, nearly 3,000 women entrepreneurs benefited from business training on various topics organized by these development centers. Within the scope of the funding educational, scientific, research and support projects of SMBs, a decision has been made to fund 40 projects so far, 9 of which are projects presented by women entrepreneurs. 11 women entrepreneurs were granted a "Startup" certificate, which exempts them from profit and income tax for 3 years on the income obtained from innovation activities.
KOBİA also supports the free participation of micro, small and medium enterprises in various specialized exhibitions and access to trade networks. Products by women entrepreneurs are regularly presented at exhibitions, fairs and trade networks as part of relevant mechanisms. In 2022, over 40 percent of the 1,050 business entities that benefited from the KOBİA support mechanism for involving in exhibitions and fairs were women entrepreneurs. 12 of the 25 entrepreneurs who have benefited from the support mechanism for access to trade networks are also women. The Women's Entrepreneurship Development Association in Azerbaijan is also represented in the Public Council under KOBİA.
https://525.az/news/218688-qadin-sahibkarlara-yeterince-destek-verilirmi
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