TODAY.AZ / Business

Azerbaijan to adopt new ICT development program

16 October 2014 [14:45] - TODAY.AZ

/AzerNews/

By Nigar Orujova

Azerbaijan is now at a new stage of technological development. The country has developed a national strategy of ICT development. To implement it, the government needs to adopt a new state program in near future.

The statement came from Azerbaijan's Communications and High Technologies Minister Ali Abbasov at the opening ceremony of the new office of HP Company in Baku on October 15.

The state is the largest customer of high-tech products on the market of Azerbaijan, he noted.

Currently the country's public sector is working with many major vendors and manufacturers of high-tech products, including HP Company.

"The state budget for the purchase of IT-hardware and software will be increased. It has envisaged in long-term plans for the construction of DATA-centers in the country," Abbasov said.

The new state program on the ICT development will be adopted in the frame of the national strategy on the information oriented society development in Azerbaijan in 2014-2020.

The previous ICT strategy in 2003-2012 had determined the main purposes of the activities in the coming years, including transition to the information society. A multitude of state programs and laws, including the state program "Electronic Azerbaijan" had been adopted over the past period.

The new program is designed to solve the problem of "digital divide" between the center and the regions of Azerbaijan. To overcome the "divide", the projects developing broadband infrastructure and satellite systems will play an essential role.

Moreover, HP and High Technology Park under the Ministry has signed a memorandum of understanding on cooperation in information security sphere at the event.

The High Tech Park is expected to be found on a 50-hectare land area in Pirallahi district of Baku in the end of this year.

The new facility will be an area with the necessary infrastructure, logistics and governing entities for conducting research in ICT, telecommunications and space use, energy efficiency, and the development of new and high technologies.

Residents and companies operating in the park will be exempt from the 18 percent VAT on imported infrastructural and technological goods and services. The park participants will also be exempt from tax and customs duty for seven years.

The park's activity is expected to expand the ICT sector of the country based on current scientific and technological achievements, and to ensure the creation of modern complexes for research and development of new information technologies.

The park will play an important role in the sustainable development of economy.

URL: http://www.today.az/news/business/137068.html

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