On 7 August, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev criticized the country’s state-owned companies and announced broad reforms in the area of privatization, reported Azerdaily. 

“If we take the taxes paid by them and the state subsidies given to them, as well as direct state investments, we will see a big difference. What does this mean? This suggests that state-owned companies are dragging our country and our economy down. There is no other explanation for this,” he said. 

As examples, Aliyev named many examples like the State Oil Company, Caspian Shipping Company, AZAL, Azerneji and railroad companies. His main point of criticism was that those companies are being financed by the state budget and that little is returned to the Azerbaijani state. 

Aliyev then drew a parallel between the private companies in Azerbaijan, which operate under the principles of the market economy and the state-owned companies still operating under a socialist model. He noted that the latter is an unacceptable form of operation. “I instruct you; the work of state-owned companies should be seriously inspected, and a new management system should be built,” he told the social-economic Council of Azerbaijan.

He then announced a new wave of privatization in Azerbaijan in order to boost the country’s economy.  “We must provide foreign and local investors with a business plan -- this is the sphere, here is the enterprise, go and privatise. If a strategic investor invests heavily, then the enterprise can be privatised at a symbolic price. We need to attract investors. Let them go and for their own money improve the territory, create public areas and buildings. Because there is a need for this, and it will revive business,“ he said. 

The Azerbaijani President stressed that cooperation between the state and the private sector should be based on more specific projects and it should not only cover industrial enterprises, but infrastructure projects as well.