Azerbaijan to switch to new e-governance model
By Mirsaid Ibrahimzade
The Azerbaijani government and the state agencies involved are conducting a constant work to ease the accessibility of public services for the population. Use of ICT technologies is definitely the best way to achieve this.
The E-Government Development Center of Azerbaijan plans to switch from the current “one-stop shop” model to the new “non-stop shop” model of e-governance between 2020-2025, Fariz Jafarov, Director of E-Government Development Center, has told journalists.
What is peculiar about this model, according to Jafarov, is that all necessary services will be continuously provided on the basis of a single e-government infrastructure. The system will be able to process a large amount of data to speed up and improve the quality of the services offered.
Over the past year, the E-Government Development Center developed over 40 projects covering, among others, various service areas including E-Gov, AsanFinans, AsanLogin, AsanVisa, AsanPay, AsanWi-Fi, and E-Tender.
Speaking about the current work of the Center, Jafarov noted that the e-government portal providing more than 400 types of services (e-gov.az) is a large system, which in turn consists of integrated subsystems connected to various areas: municipal, agrarian, social, and national. These subsystems combine many different structures. For example, all utilities will be in a single communal system to facilitate and accelerate the services provided to citizens. As part of the new approach to working with clients, a single subscriber code, a single service, and a single operator approach will be created.
The Ministry of Labor and Social Protection of the Population of Azerbaijan and other state institutions of this sphere are integrated into unified social system that enables exchange of necessary information between its structures. The systems of national space and agrarian sphere will include all structures that operate in the agrarian, land, water, air, environmental and other sectors.
According to the director, a lot of work was done on digitization and transfer of documents to the portal database. As noted by Jafarov, a period of reactive services began after digitization, which consists of providing services to various institutions at the request of citizens.
The current period is one of proactive services, where services are provided without the request of citizens, he said. For example, when a child is born, the state will inform parents that it is necessary to obtain a birth certificate without the citizens making a request themselves. The system allowing for registering a newborn baby and issuing a birth certificate. The citizens will be also notified in the case of the expiration of their passports and other documents.
Speaking about the success of AsanVisa initiative, the director said that in February this year, one millionth foreign tourist was issued an e-visa in Azerbaijan. He also reported about the AsanFinans project, which includes Internet banking allowing for quick banking transactions of the clients and provision of documents in an electronic form through the citizen identification system using an individual identification number (FIN). More than 24 companies, including banks and non-bank financial companies (NBFCs) have been integrated into this system, and the process of connecting other banks and NBFCs is underway, said Jafarov.
He also spoke about unique AsanLogin project. According to Jafarov, registration in this portal provides access to all other ASAN portals.
It is noteworthy that a new e-government portal (mygov.az) will be launched in Azerbaijan next month which will make possible to use the services of AsanPay on the website. Through the portal, citizens will have access to all the services of various structures and companies to connect to the system.
AsanPay allows for making payments for more than 541 types of services including, among others, banking, mobile, utilities, leasing, tax, migration and judicial services. As of today, more than 10,000 AsanPay payment terminals have been installed in the country.
The presentation of the mygov.az portal and new services to be provided by the AsanPay e-system took place on April 24 in the E-Government Development Center.
Along with these innovations, there are plenty of advanced changes to ease life of Azerbaijani citizens and save their time. As an example, Azerbaijan’s Food Safety Agency will start online registration of business entities working in the nutrition sector on May 1. For this purpose, the agency has developed an automated information system for food safety, which currently operates in the test mode. The registration will no longer require visiting the agency’s departments; it is necessary just to log into the agency’s official website to register.
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Mirsaid Ibrahimzade is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @MirsaidIbrahim1
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