Page 57 - Azerbaijan State University of Economics

THE JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC SCIENCES: THEORY AND PRACTICE, V.70, # 1, 2013, pp. 46-76

industry and increased in refinery production. Recent research shows that during

1998-2011 development of industry was due to the mining sector. This is related

with the large portion of products of the mining sector. At the same time the volume

of mining related products decreased from 80.7% in 2009 to 78.2% in 2011

(Azerbaijan statistics, 2012: 848-469).

We would like to note that prior to the market reforms in Azerbaijan two basic

sectors were supported by investments: light industry (2005: 2.1 mln AZN, 2010:

0.2 mln AZN) and food industry (2005: 28 mln AZN, 2010: 45.6 mln AZN). These

figures indicate that the demand for investments for food and light industries is still

not provided; as a result the production of this sector is still below the other ones.

Major part of the Companies operating in Azerbaijan is remaining from the

Soviet period. Therefore the fixed assets available in these companies are not

updated. (Azerbaijani statistics, 2012, p482-487). In such conditions these assets

require the significant improvements. Nowadays the major part of the companies

does not use the strategic management. The absence of development strategy limits

their opportunities of success. Therefore, application of market strategies,

identification of competitive advantages and evaluation of market positions is

essential for the local companies.

During the last 10 years investments in amount of around 10 mlrd US dollar

were attracted to the Azerbaijani economy and the major part of this amount was

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