Pursuant to the Decree of the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan No. 5643 dated 28 January, 2019 on Measures to Improve the Management System in the fields of Investments and Foreign Trade, the Authority of Investment and Foreign Trade of the Republic of Azerbaijan was established by the merger of the State Investments Committee of the Republic of Azerbaijan and the Authority of Foreign Trade.

The is the competent government agency responsible for implementation of the unified state investment policy, management of attraction of foreign investments, first of all direct investments, cooperation with international financial institutions (offices of the manager) and foreign government financial organizations, as well as formation and management of the unified state policy in the field of foreign trade and international economic cooperation.

The Authority of Investments and Foreign Trade of the Republic of Azerbaijan implements the following main strategic tasks and functions:

• implementation of the unified state investment policy, ensuring the management of development and effective implementation of state development programs and investment programs, including sectoral and regional investment programs
• management of work to attract foreign investment, implementation of effective interaction with international economic and financial institutions, foreign governmental financial organizations bilaterally and multilaterally
• management of work of public authorities and organizations, permanent representatives of the Republic of Azerbaijan in international and foreign financial and economic institutions, as well as, in cooperation with the Authority of Foreign Affairs, of workers involved in foreign economic activity at foreign institutions of the Republic of Azerbaijan
• participation in preparation, coordination and signing of international agreements of the Republic of Azerbaijan on investment cooperation
• providing continuous feedback from investors, assistance to regions and domestic companies in attracting investments, organization of investment proposals development
• implementation of the unified state policy in the field of foreign trade, promotion and contribution to developing the effective operation of the National System of Export Support, coordination among government agencies and organizations in the field of the management of foreign trade
• coordination of activities related to the application of tariff-based and non-tariff-based measures regulating the trade, as well as improvement of e-commerce procedures
• expansion and strengthening of trade cooperation of the Republic of Azerbaijan with foreign countries, support of export of commodities, works and services
• coordination of the admission of the Republic of Azerbaijan to the World Trade Organization and cooperation with other multilateral economic organizations
• coordination in the management of wholesale and exchange trade, monitoring and analysis of the market, marketing research and analysis of information on commodity prices
• promotion of the foreign trade infrastructure development, in particular to increase the level of potential for transit traffic, improvement of logistics and transport corridors, as well as diversification of export routes.

Core Functions of the A.A.I.A

• Supervise the implementation of established procurement policies
• Monitor the prices of tendered items and keep a national database of standard prices
• Publish the details of major contracts in the procurement journ
• Publish paper and electronic editions of the procurement journal and maintain an archival system for the procurement journal
• Maintain a national database of the particulars and classification and categorisation of federal contractors and service providers
• Collate and maintain in an archival system, all federal procurement plans and information
• Undertake procurement research and surveys
• Organise training and development programmes for procurement professionals
• Periodically review the socio-economic effect of the policies on procurement and advise the Council accordingly
• Prepare and update standard bidding and contract documents
• Prevent fraudulent and unfair procurement and where necessary apply administrative sanctions
• Review the procurement and award of contract procedures of every entity to which the procurement act applies