PRIORITY: IT

Developing the non-petroleum sectors of Azerbaijan's economy is a strategic priority for the government. Promotion of the IT sector plays a special role in this strategy.High ratings by international organizations have repeatedly demonstrated the effectiveness of state programs to ensure high rates of growth for the IT sector. Recent reports by the International Telecommunica-tions Union and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development are the latest confirmation of our nation's accomplishments. 

The growthof the Azerbaijani IT-sector and the penetration of the information society's mechanism have received multiple high ratings in numerous reports by international ratings agencies, as well as in research by the World Economic Forum (WEF), the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank, and others. 

In particular a report published in April of this year by the WEF entitled the Global Information Technology Report 2014 gave Azerbaijan 49th place on its Network Readiness Index (NRI), an increase of seven points over last year's ranking.

In June of this year Azerbaijan's accomplishments in incorporating information technologies into state management were confirmed by the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs. In the updated ranking of states by their level of "e-government", the United Nations E-government Survey, Azerbaijan gathered 0,5472 points and, moving ahead by 28 positions, occupied 68th place worldwide.

Of course, achievements in the development of the IT sector have also been recorded in the yearly reports of a more authoritative organization in this field - the International Telecommuni-cations Union (ITU). According to ITU estimates, in terms of the introduction of information technologies into the business, social, and government spheres Azerbaijan occupies a transitional position between highly-developed and developing states. Additionally, the ITU included Azerbaijan in a group of ten countries who have achieved the fastest growth in this field over the past 5-7 years. ITU experts have once again confirmedthe country's high positions, advancing Azerbaijan to 64th position world-wide in its IT-ranking titled Measuring the Information Society Report 2014. The IT development index follows eleven factors, among which are its level of computerization, the penetration of mobile communications, fixed internet, and mobile internet services. Azerbaijan and Russia took second place in the CIS for their level of broadband internet access, coming second only to Belarus. Azerbaijan also took one of the leading positions among post-Soviet states for the number of households with computers and internet access. 

Equally flattering appraisals were earned by the Azerbaijani IT sector in the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development's (EBRD) Transition Report 2014. The document states that until 2010 Azerbaijan's attention was largely focused on improving infrastructure, resulting in the almost total conversion of its communications networks to digital format and increased bandwidth for external internet channels. Efforts to liberalize the telecommunications market led to noticeably lowered rates on unlimited broadband internet access over the past four years. "Over the past few years Azerbaijan has created a unified e-government portal, launched a communications satellite - Azerspace-1, established a State Fund for the development of IT technologies, and this agency has begun financing start-up projects. A University of Information Techno-logies has been opened, the transition to digital broadcasting has been completed, etc. Realizing these and many other projects has put Azerbaijan in first place for the southern Caucasus for the level of development of its telecommunications sector. Overall, over the past ten years the yearly rates of development of the IT sector in Azerbaijan have been 25-30 per cent, thanks to which this sector has become the second-largest recipient of foreign investments after the oil industry,"the EBRD report states.

The administration has no intentions of slowing down the rate at which innovations in the IT sector are introduced. For example, in April of this year Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev approved a new seven-year "National Development Strategy for the Information Society (until 2020)", which is intended to widen the country's information and communications market by 400 to 450 per cent, and features measures closely coordinated with the overall development concept "Azerbaijan 2020: a look into the future." The job of coordinating these initiatives has been given to the Ministry of Communications and High Technology. To carry out these strategies specialists at the ministry have prepared a draft of a state program for the development of an information society for 2014-2017. "The project has been coordinated with the pertinent government agencies. The key vectors for development and the scope of investments for the planned undertakings have been determined, and at the moment financing questions are being run past the relevant bodies," the Ministry of Communications and High Technology report says. 

Later ona second state program for 2018-2020 will be drawn up. Both state programs will be primarily instituted at government expense and direct toward broad-based development of the country's information society. These programs are not only intended to promote the multi-faceted use of IT in state management and widen the "electronic government" capabilities, but also to increase the use of IT as an engine for growth in the industrial sector, stimulating the socio-economic and cultural spheres. There are plans in the state programs for formation of competitive and export-oriented IT-industries, the development of space technologies and the knowledge-based economy, the provision of integration into the international information space. The knowledge-based economy should depend on, among other things, science and education, which means the hundred-per cent provision of broadband capabilities for schools and institutions of higher learning.

One important goal of the state programs is the introduction of innovations and the development of related infrastructure, in particular alternate, high-speed, and transit internet highways. Plans have been outlined to provide citizens with equal access to information, for which online media, social networks, and new types of mass media will be given stimulus. There proposals to provide new possibilities for the development of e-trade, telemedicine, as well as for the increased use of the national domain name .az.

The priorities of the first state program, planned for the years 2014-2017, are such projects as the introduction of broadband services for each home using "fiber to home" technologies, as well as the development of LTE 4G fourth-generation mobile Internet access. The creation of a high-tech park and other elements of a Regional Innovation Zone is also planned, which would include specialized research institutes and experimental laboratories. A chain of business incubators will be set up in Azerbaijan, and financing for innovative entrepreneurship projects, including the financing for start-up projects, will be increased. 

The successful realization of the projects planned will allow civic and government organizations to make the jump to a new level of development and in tight deadlines attain "digital equality" with the world's leading states. The government plans to investment roughly 3.5 billion dollars of government funds into the IT sector. When one takes into account the future reformation and liberalization of this sector, as well as the preferential investment regime, an equal amount of private investments may also be generated.