AZE.US
Ilgar Mammadov, a member of the Political Committee of Azerbaijan’s Republican Alternative (REAL) party, has criticized the government’s approach to developing the mining and metallurgical industries.
He says officials are trying to choose and manage business projects themselves instead of allowing entrepreneurs to take the lead.
In a post on his Telegram channel, Mammadov responded to a September 22 meeting chaired by President Ilham Aliyev on the state program for the sector for 2027–2030. The program was approved the following day.
Mammadov pointed to two metallurgical projects launched in Ganja in 2008. According to him, the steel complex later shut down, while an aluminum plant passed into state ownership after difficulties repaying the loan taken out to build it.
He argued that any assessment of such projects should account for what happened to the money invested in them, not simply whether a plant remains in operation. His account of the projects’ financial history has not been independently verified by AZE.US.
In Mammadov’s view, the authorities favor industries based on natural resources because they are easier to control centrally. He said that outside oil and gas, the economic impact of such enterprises is either small or too limited in scale to provide comparable stimulus.
He also linked industrial policy to political control. Independent entrepreneurs and their employees, he argued, would eventually demand the rule of law. That, he believes, helps explain the government’s preference for sectors under close state supervision.
Mammadov called on the state to stop “thinking for entrepreneurs.” Ministers should make political decisions that create room for business, he said, rather than attempt to devise and run commercial projects themselves.
“When our ministers become politicians, they will be able to open the way for entrepreneurs,” he concluded.
AZE.US