Azerbaijani E-Government gains more popularity

/By Azernews/

By Rashid Shirinov

Azerbaijan has made great strides in building e-government, said on August 2 Jamshid Nakhchivanski, the coordinator of “Electronic Government” info portal and computing center of the Ministry of Communications and High Technologies.

This can be evidenced through the recent UN ranking E-Government Survey 2016. “If we look at the ratings  over the past two years published by the UN, we can see that Azerbaijan has moved up 12 points to occupy the 56th place by E-Government Development Index,” Nakhchivanski said.

At the same time Azerbaijan rose from the 7th to 4th place in the ranking among the CIS countries. In the past rating of 2014 Azerbaijan ranked 68. Rather significant jump is observed on the E-Participation Index – the country has risen from 77th to 47th place by making a great leap of 30 positions.

The coordinator of Azerbaijani E-Government stressed that the main criteria of the E-Government Development Index is preparation of electronic services and infrastructure for their delivery.

Azerbaijan has made tremendous progress in these areas. For example, the E-Participation Index is measured by the extent of electronic services being in demand of population. For the first half of 2016, the number of appeals to electronic services available on the portal "Electronic government" of Azerbaijan has exceeded eight million, which equals to 30 percent of the total number of appeals since the launch of the portal.

“This is a clear indication that the portal is integrated by e-services that are in a great demand and fully satisfy the needs of citizens,” Nakhchivanski said.

In its turn, the Ministry of Communications and High Technologies closely works with state departments of the country and plays a key role in formation of electronic services for Azerbaijani population.

Today, the greatest demand is observed for e-services of the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection of Population. Moreover, people often address to service of electronic declaration of the State Customs Committee. Statistics reveal that the number of appeals for these types of services over recent months almost reached one million.

The E-Government portal, launched in 2012, brings together more than 80 state organizations. Currently, 41 institutions render citizens 423 e-services. Moreover, 35 non-state actors were also connected to this portal and use these services. Over the past two years, the number of users of the portal increased 10 times to 2.5 million people. Since last year, electronic certificates has been issued as well.