After Azerbaijan attained independence in the aftermath of the Soviet Union's collapse, the new government undertook privatization as part of its shift towards a market economy.
[5][4][6] According to a 2009 court filing, the last known whereabouts of two-thirds of the vouchers were in 28 shell companies owned by Azerbaijani political elites.
[4] After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the people of Azerbaijan gained independence, the government undertook economic reforms aimed at the application of market mechanisms in the economy.
According to article 1 of the “About privatization of housing stock in the Azerbaijan Republic”, dated 26 January 1993: “Citizens of the Azerbaijan Republic, and also the stateless persons which signed the contract on hiring of premises with the owner of the state or public housing stock have the right to gratuitously transfer the premises (houses) occupied by them to personal property under the terms and according to the procedure, the established this Law.” [8] The privatization process in Azerbaijan can be divided into three stages in the formulation and implementation of the legislative basis: Preparatory stage characterizes the period up to 1996 and is called initial privatization.
The changes in the arrangement and management of the organizational issues of the privatization process have coincided with this period and as a result, the State Property Committee has become the Ministry.