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SMBDA ready to support initiatives to increase e-commerce 21.10.19

The Agency for Development of Small and Medium Business (SMBDA) is ready to actively participate in the process of increasing share of e-commerce and to support further initiatives.

This statement was made by the Chairman of the Board of the Agency for Development of Small and Medium Business Orkhan Mammadov at Baku Electronic Commerce Forum held on October 21.

Mammadov said that the volume of e-commerce rapidly grows in the modern world. Azerbaijan also takes significant steps to adapt to these trends within the global economic system. Therefore, e-commerce scope expansion in Azerbaijan, including retail e-commerce share increase, and cross-border trade development were identified as a priority: to implement measures envisaged in "2018 Strategic Roadmap for Development of Telecommunications and Information Technologies in the Republic of Azerbaijan", the 2018-2020 State Program for Digital Payments Expansion in the Republic of Azerbaijan was adopted. In addition, the portal "Azerbaijan Digital Commerce" was created to bring the legal and infrastructure framework of e-commerce in line with international requirements. All this created an important legal basis for expanding the cashless payment environment, reducing volume of cash turnover and ultimately strengthening financial resources of the banking industry. We believe that development of e-commerce is a common responsibility of three parties - citizens, businesses and government agencies. While a citizen's primary responsibility is to acquire digital knowledge and make electronic payments, entrepreneurs can increase public interest in this process by organizing online sales of domestic or exported goods. Taking regulatory steps, the government can increase efficiency of the ecosystem in this area as well as promote e-commerce. In short, growth of cashless turnover among business entities and development of cashless payment culture in population are key factors for e-commerce growth.

Emphasizing that SMBDA’s primary objective is to support startups, micro, small and medium businesses in the country, Mammadov said, that the agency has a broad and diverse agenda for ensuring enhanced business environment, efficient regulatory system, multiple targeted support measures and smooth and easy access of entrepreneurs to them: “taking into account broad potential for increased e-commerce in trade transactions, including retail sales, as well as ability of micro, small and medium entrepreneurs to take more flexible steps in the process, we believe that there is a need for these measures and the SMBDA is ready to participate in this process actively and support further initiatives”.