Austria interested in Azerbaijan's ICT market
By Nigar Orujova
Cooperation in the ICT sector was high on the agenda of a meeting of an Austrian delegation led by Deputy Federal Minister of Transport, Innovation and Technology Andreas Reinhard held at Azerbaijan's Communications and Information Technologies Ministry on Tuesday.
Deputy ICT Minister Elmir Velizade said that the friendly relations between the two countries are strengthening in the backdrop of the dynamic development of the ICT sector.
Velizade noted that 2013 was declared the ICT year in Azerbaijan and said the implementation of a relevant Action Plan has already started, and several important decisions on ICT development have been made, with some more to be passed in the near future.
In turn, Andreas Reinhard said Austria is interested in building an electronic government, training of personnel on e-government, e-health, registry services in real estate, e-security, communications and other spheres, etc.
Reinhard noted the successful cooperation between the two countries, saying the peak of this cooperation will be a visit of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev to Austria in the near future.
He also spoke about bringing new technologies to Azerbaijan. Noting that Azerbaijan and Austria have already implemented successful projects in different fields, he expressed interest in the construction of a plant in Azerbaijan meeting modern standards for production of telecommunication cables. According to him, the plant would meet the domestic demand of Azerbaijan and at the same time export goods to foreign countries.
Deputy Minister Velizade also highly valued the project, noting the expanding of cooperation possibilities in other spheres as well. He said Azerbaijan aims at developing competitive enterprises with export potential and innovative entrepreneurship.
The Azerbaijani ICT ministry reported that the event was attended by representatives of the ministry, government agencies and local ICT companies. The Austrian delegation comprised heads of companies operating in various sectors of Austria's economy.
Azerbaijan attracts the interest of foreign companies with its leading position among the CIS countries in terms of broadband Internet penetration over the past three years.
Internet penetration rates increased from 65 to 70 percent in 2012. Work was carried out to improve the quality of data transmission services. The capacity of international communication channels more than doubled compared to 2011 and fees were reduced by 35 percent.
Some 103 million manats (about $131 million) have been allocated for the implementation of the broadband Internet development project in Azerbaijan in 2013, which means further spread of broadband Internet in the country and an increase of Internet users to 85 percent.
Earlier, ICT Minister Ali Abbasov noted the role of the ICT sector in exports and growth of the domestic market. Abbasov said that since the demand on the domestic market is limited, long-term plans for the development of the sector are associated with the development of exports. He said Azerbaijan is exporting a range of services in this field to Iran and Georgia, and the geography of exports will continue to grow.