At a meeting of parliamentary committees on February 22, the draft law "On the Free Economic Zone of Alat" was approved in the second reading. The bill was considered at a joint meeting of three Committees - for Natural Resources, Energy and the Environment; Economic Policy, Industry and Entrepreneurship; and Legal Policy and State Building. The Parliament"s press service reported this.

At the meeting, the additions and amendments to the draft law made after the first reading were discussed.

The Vice Speaker of the Milli Majlis (MM) Valeh Aleskerov told about the changes. According to him, the changes were related to the implementation of decisions on the rights and tasks of the authorized structures of the free zone, zone management, customs in the free zone, the border regime, the implementation of decisions of structures on labor rules and dispute resolution. The working languages of the free zone have been also defined - Azerbaijani and English, and other languages may become working ones if the need arises.

The MPs approved the draft law in the second reading and recommended it for consideration in the MM.

The creation of a free economic zone in Alat was stipulated in the order signed by President Ilham Aliyev in March 2016. In May 2017, Ilham Aliyev returned to this issue by signing an order to accelerate the creation of a free economic zone. In this regard, a working group was created, which was chaired by Vice Speaker of the MM Valeh Aleskerov.