Azerbaijan, South Korea to co-op in ICT
By Nigar Orujova
Azerbaijan and South Korea have agreed to cooperate in ICT sector, the Executive Director of Azerbaijani State Fund for Development of Information Technologies, Elchin Zeynalov said.
He added the State Fund and South Korea's Small and Medium Business Corporation (SBC) reached a preliminary agreement on this issue.
The State Fund operates under the Azerbaijani Communications and
High Technologies Ministry.
The SBC, which was established in 1979, is a non-profit government
agency aiming to develop and support small and medium business.
Zeynalov said the cooperation with the SBC was discussed at a
meeting between the State Fund's management and South Korea's
Ambassador to Azerbaijan Choi Suk-inn in Baku.
He stressed that the ICT sector is one of the areas of cooperation
between Azerbaijan and South Korea.
Azerbaijan intends to draw on South Korea's experience in
supporting the IT-business.
In the long term, Azerbaijan does not rule out the possibility of
jointly implementing IT-projects of Azerbaijani and Korean
companies.
The State Fund was established to implement the state policy on the development and support small enterprises in scientific and technical fields. It defines three ways of financing: investments, grants, and credits.
This year, the state budget provides 5 million manats (over $6 million) for financing start-up projects by the Fund.