Magic touch

In recent years in Azerbaijan, as well as throughout the world, the authorities have been moving on to the large-scale use of information and communication technologies (ICT), the driving force behind which is the growth in the need to improve the quality of public administration.

Today, the main motive for change is the shift to the provision of public services in electronic form. The organization of state power based on mobile technology is gaining increasing popularity in Azerbaijan. We are talking about the introduction of the so-called m-government (mobile government) platform, which aims to provide a new level of efficiency and comfort in services to individuals and organizations, as well as information on the performance of government agencies.

ASAN-imza

As is known, the use of electronic services requires an electronic digital signature (EDS). Given the maturity of the mobile market and the popularity of mobile devices today, the government focuses on the possibility of using a digital signature in operator networks. For example, a joint project of the Azerbaijani Tax Ministry and the ASAN Service of the State Agency for Services to Citizens and Social Innovations under the Azerbaijani president was presented in Baku last week. It provides for the organization of a service to issue a mobile digital signature.

Tax Minister Fazil Mammadov said that the Tax Ministry has set up a centre to certify electronic signature services, which is tightly integrated with the Automated Tax Information System (AVIS). Moreover, the centre was set up in accordance with European standards, which will make it possible to mutually recognize the electronic signature in Azerbaijan and Europe. This, according to the minister, will enable residents of Azerbaijan to create joint ventures with foreign nationals and sign contracts online via the Internet. "The integration of this structure into the centre of mobile signatures will provide access to the electronic signature from any device. This, in turn, will give impetus to the development of Internet and mobile banking in the country and the expansion of non-cash payments," Mammadov said.

According to him, the launch of the centre and its integration with the mobile signature centre (ASAN-imza) should be regarded as transition from electronic to mobile government. "The continued development of information technology and mobile services in Azerbaijan increases the demand for e-services among the public and the need for the use of the electronic signature," the minister said.

It must be noted that the new platform of the mobile signature centre (ASAN-imza) is integrated with the platforms of the three mobile operators of Azerbaijan, but in order to use it, you need to change the Sim-card. The application is installed and activated both at the Tax Ministry's centre to certify the electronic signature and at the centres of the ASAN service. In the future, it is planned to install the application of mobile EDS in new ID cards, the issuance of which is scheduled for 2014.

The centre for the registration of the electronic digital signature based on the first centre of the ASAN service was opened at the end of March 2013. The certificate of the e-signature is made immediately after the submission of a relevant application to the registration centre, of which the owner of a digital signature is notified by e-mail. The owner can get a digital signature directly at the ASAN service, and the service of requests in this regard is available to all citizens, regardless of their place of residence.

In mid-March, the Information and Computing Centre (ICC) of the Azerbaijani Ministry of Communica-tions and Information Technology, given the increase in demand for e-signatures among civil servants, reduced its price from 135 to 80 manats. Another cut in the cost of the e-signature (from 30 to 25 manats) for the public followed at the beginning of April.

Aspect of interaction

Speaking of the electronic digital signature, it should be noted that it is one of the main aspects of the electronic interaction of state organizations both among themselves and with the business sector and the population.

What is this signature? In essence, it is a specific sequence of symbols received through the transformation of the source document with special software. When forwarded, the digital signature is added to the original document, as a result of which the authorship and the immutability of the information contained in the document are confirmed. If any changes are made to the original document, the electronic signature becomes invalid.

Getting a digital signature allows you to be confident in the authorship and content of the documents exchanged by an organization through the Internet. It is impossible to forge an electronic signature. A document with a digital signature and a document signed with one's own hand are recognized as equal.

In the next five years, complete transition from paper to an electronic document management system is expected, which is irreversible in view of the future growth of applications and the amount of data that need to be processed, booked and secured. Also, one of the key issues affecting the transition to electronic document management systems will be population growth, the increasing number of projects in different sectors of the economy, increasing bandwidth, etc.

The EDS is also one of the main elements of the "electronic government", which is rapidly developing in Azerbaijan and allows state institutions to provide public electronic services via the Internet. The number of approved electronic services is 417 units, of which 187 are available on the portal of e-services. The total number of e-services available on the websites of government agencies of Azerbaijan is 384 units.

In short, today the most advanced information technology is gradually becoming an essential element of state activity, changing attitudes and relations in the administrative environment. The need for "electronic government" reflects the current state of the information society, which makes state and administrative activity and structures more open, transparent and effective.

In the future, the "electronic government" will become even more important, and the need for electronic services will become even greater, and this trend will serve the development of the concept itself and new forms of integration between government, businesses and citizens.