An event was held on the theme of "The role of agroparks in agricultural development"

An event on the theme of "The role of agroparks in agricultural development" was organized by the Ministry of Economy and the Ministry of Agriculture in September 30. Minister of Economy Mikayil Jabbarov, Minister of Agriculture Inam Karimov, Chairman of "Amelioration and Water Management OJSC" Zaur Mikayilov, as well as heads of relevant government agencies and leading companies in the agricultural sector were attended at the event.

Speaking at the event, Minister of economy Mikayil Jabbarov noted the role of agroparks in agriculture and the country's economy in general, noting the measures taken to improve the efficiency of their activities-tax privileges, subsidies and preferential credits to the agricultural sector, and the application of discounts for technique and equipment granted to leasing. It was noted that at present, work is underway to create 51 agroparks worth 2.1 billion manats in the area of 240,000 hectares in 32 districts of the country. 43 agroparks have already started to operate, while others have been carrying out design work. State support is provided for the organization of agroparks, infrastructure is created, preferential loans are provided. So far, the Entrepreneurship Development Fund of the Ministry of Economy has provided AZN 173 million in soft loans for the establishment of 23 agroparks, and the Ministry has issued investment promotion documents worth AZN 1 billion for 27 agroparks. The 25 agroparks that received investment promotion documents were issued a number of supporting documents for the import of machinery, technological equipment and facilities, and these agroparks received a discount of 32.8 million manat on these approval documents. To date, more than 1 billion manat has been invested in agricultural parks.

The Minister noted that agroparks also play an important role in increasing employment. So far, a total of 5,000 people have been provided with permanent and more than 4,500 with seasonal jobs in agricultural parks. It is planned to create more than 4,300 additional jobs in the existing and to be organized agroparks.

It was noted that agroparks are an innovative and convenient mechanism for the efficient use of land, increasing productivity, creating new production and processing areas, the application of modern irrigation systems. In this regard, the role of agroparks in strengthening food security should be strengthened, it should become a favorable platform for the development of entrepreneurship, mutually beneficial cooperation of small, medium and large farms.

Minister of Agriculture Inam Karimov stressed the importance of agroparks in the efficient use of arable lands and the expansion of production of environmentally friendly products, stressed the importance of increasing the efficiency of agroparks and spoke about the measures taken in this direction.

Chairman of "Amelioration and Water Management" OJSC Zaur Mikayilov informed about the measures to be taken to apply advanced technologies in production and irrigation systems, to improve the supply of irrigation water.

Acting Chairman of the Board of the Agency for Development of Economic Zones Elshad Nuriyev made a presentation on the activities of agricultural parks in the country.

Then discussions were held with representatives of the agropark and questions were answered. Entrepreneurs complain about water shortages, agricultural insurance, land reassignment, lack of road infrastructure, lack of specialists, salinization of lands as a result of illegal fish ponds, renovation of water pumps, construction of new substations, etc. voiced their proposals on the issues.