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AZERBAIJAN'S NEW ECONOMIC ICON: THE IT SECTOR
EURASIA DAILY MONITOR, February 16, 2007
By Fariz Ismailzade
"In fifteen years, Azerbaijan's revenues from the IT sector will equal to the revenues from the oil sector." This sensational and rather ambitious statement was made by the Minister of Communications and Information Technologies, Mr. Ali Abbasov, while speaking at the February 15 meeting of the Caspian Integration Business Club, an organization that unites 300 companies from 30 countries in the Black Sea-Caspian region.
However, a closer look at the latest developments in Azerbaijan's economy shows that this statement might not be unrealistic. While attending the World Economic Forum in Davos on January 26-28, President Aliyev met with Microsoft CEO Bill Gates, as well as the CEOs of CISCO, INTEL and other hi-tech companies and invited them to invest in Azerbaijan. Following that, Gates announced that Azerbaijan seemed to be an attractive country for his company to work with.
As Azerbaijan is rapidly expanding its GDP and gaining significant amounts of oil revenues, the political leadership of the country is seeking ways to diversify the economy and develop the non-oil sector to ensure sustainable growth in the future. Development of the IT sector and making Baku the IT hub of the region was chosen as the new icon of Azerbaijan's future economic model - one which will not depend on oil and gas.
Speaking at the third anniversary of the implementation of the State Program on "Poverty Reduction and Economic Growth" last week, President Aliyev re-emphasized his intention to invest oil revenues into the IT sector and called it "a priority area." The President also instructed the Ministry to transform Azerbaijan into the regional center for the "transit of information." "If we manage to improve our legislative basis and implement it with transparency, we can succeed in making Azerbaijan the center for the transit of information between the East and the West," Minister Abbasov noted later.
Minister Abbasov also stated that in order to succeed in this direction, works are being done in several directions. Foremost, the computer network in the country is being upgraded and remodeled and it is expected that by 2009, the number of computer users in Azerbaijan will more than double. Secondly, the government of Azerbaijan is engaged in negotiations with the World Bank and the South Korean Government to receive $30 million for the implementation of the E-Government project in the country.
The most ambitious project, however, is the creation of the Regional Investment Zone (RIZ), which in the words of Minister Abbasov, is already underway. An American company was selected to consult with the Ministry in its execution. It is planned that the packet of suggestions on the establishment of RIZ will be submitted to the Parliament in March. The packet will include suggestions on how to change the fiscal and monetary policy of the state, as well as customs tariffs, taxes and legislative acts in order to simulate the development of the IT sector in the country.
As part of the development of the IT sector, it is planned also to expand the human resources in the country by creating an IT university, sending Azerbaijani students abroad and improving the quality of education at local colleges. At the same time, by the end of 2008, the whole country will be provided with telephones based on a digital system. Abbasov recently also announced that the state companies Aztelecom and Baktelecom will be privatized as another step towards the development of a dynamic IT and telecommunications sector in the country. Aztelecom, a natural monopolist in the country, uniting 54 companies, will be privatized to stimulate the competition in the IT sector.
The growing potential of Azerbaijan's IT sector was felt recently when a "war of hackers" erupted between Azerbaijan and Armenia. Minister Abbasov warned the Armenian side that, "Azerbaijan's technological capabilities are several times higher than the ones of Armenia. So Armenian hackers should stop destroying websites in Azerbaijan, otherwise they will regret it."
Last year, Minister Abbasov traveled to the U.S. to launch his campaign on turning Azerbaijan into the IT hub of the Caspian region and subsequently came up with the idea of creating a "Technopark" in Azerbaijan. Although Azerbaijan was never a center of communications and technologies during Soviet times, the opportunity is ripe now to change the country's image for future decades.
PRESIDENT ILHAM ALIYEV ATTENDS CONFERENCE MARKING THIRD ANNIVERSARY OF IMPLEMENTATION OF THE STATE PROGRAM OF SOCIO-ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT OF REGIONS
REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT ON TOP OF ALIYEV'S AGENDA
ALIYEV ORDERS TO SET UP ECONOMIC ZONES
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March 2007,
Issue No. 47
Previous Issues
UNDP Azerbaijan Website
Bulletin Home Page
NOVRUZ RINGING THE DOORBELL
Azernews, March 20, 2007
Aliyev congratulates nation on historic date
The Azerbaijani people celebrated national holidays in a rather low-key way during the Soviet Union times. However, after they asserted sovereignty and established an independent state upon the Soviet collapse in 1991, March 20-21 - the Novruz Bayrami (Holiday) marking the advent of spring - were officially announced holidays. President Ilham Aliyev has lately issued a decree announcing the celebration of the holiday for five days for the first time in the republic's history. Under the decision, the people of Azerbaijan will celebrate the date for a full week starting this year.
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