Azerbaijan submits 6 projects to European Commission for financing

/By AzerNews/

By Aynur Karimova

Azerbaijan has developed six projects under the Harmonizing Digital Markets Initiative and submitted them to the European Commission for financing, according to remarks made by Tofig Babayev on August 17.

The director of the Regional Information Technologies Academy told Trend that the main projects to be financed in 2016-2017 will be determined by the end of 2015.

"The projects developed in six areas of HDM Initiative, including e-customs, e-commerce, e-business, and e-security, will be further implemented in Azerbaijan," he noted.

Babayev went on to add that the proposals will be presented to the international commission until September 15, while the selection of projects will be completed before October 15.

The International Commission, which also includes experts from Azerbaijan, will determine the priorities that will be financed by the European Commission in the next two years. The final decision on project financing is expected to be made in December 2015.

The HDM Initiative envisages the creation of a unified digital space and the digital market at a broad level so that entrepreneurs could have a single numeric field for the trading and settlements.

It consists of 14 important aspects, including the creation of legislation, customs, and software for trading.

The HDM Initiative includes countries of the Eastern Partnership (Belarus, Moldova, Ukraine, Azerbaijan, Georgia and Armenia).

The Eastern Partnership is a project of EU, whose main objective is the development of integration ties between the EU and six former Soviet countries: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova, and Ukraine.

Relations between Azerbaijan and EU are based on the Partnership and Cooperation Agreement signed in 1996 in Luxemburg and entered into force in 1999.

Azerbaijan is also included in the EU Eastern Partnership program adopted under the initiative of Poland and Sweden and approved at the EU summit in Brussels in 2008. The program's aim is to expand cooperation between the EU and Azerbaijan, Ukraine, Armenia, Moldova, Georgia, and Belarus.

It envisages a significant increase of the level of political interaction and integration of former Soviet republics into the EU economy, increasing the volume of financial aid and strengthening energy security.