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Over $250 million invested in ICT in 2013

17 February 2014 15:18 (UTC+04:00)
Over $250 million invested in ICT in 2013

By Nigar Orujova

The investments made in Azerbaijan's ICT sector and postal services in 2013 amount to 202.2 million manats (over $257 million).

The news was announced by the Communications and IT Ministry on February 14.

The figure consists one percent of the total volume invested in the country's economy, the ministry added.

Azerbaijan's revenues for the ICT sector and postal services amounted to 1.632.2 billion manats in 2013, which is 14 percent more than in 2012.

The real growth rates of the ICT sector in 2013 amounted to 14 percent, with IT sector increased for 1.3 times, and the postal sector increased for a 4.3 percent.

The non-state sector received 77 percent of the revenues of the ICT and postal services in 2013.

The ICT development is continuing in the new year as well. The Azerbaijani organizations and people were provided with ICT services worth 121.8 million manats in January, which is 12.7 percent higher than 2013, the State Statistics Committee said.

The committee said 72.3 percent of the total volume of ICT services accounted for services rendered to the population, and 58.4 percent of the total income accounted for mobile services.

The total revenues from mobile services in the country amounted to 71.1 million manats, which surpasses the figures for 2013 by 6.2 percent.

E-commerce on the rise

The volume of electronic commerce in Azerbaijan was marked at 242,300 manats in January, the committee said.

Both individuals and legal entities took part in the e-commerce market. The total volume of retail e-commerce in Azerbaijan increased 1.7 times compared to the indicator of January 2013.

Legal entities purchased 84.5 percent of the goods, while individuals bought 15.5 percent.

Non-food goods accounted for 91.9 percent of the turnover in the e-commerce market.

The total volume of retail commerce in Azerbaijan in January 2014 was 1.7 billion manats.

Digital TV scope expands

Another main goal of the ICT ministry is providing the whole population with digital TV. The commercial package of the digital TV DVB-T2 will be put into operation in the Guba region of Azerbaijan in the middle of March, the "Teleradio" production station at the ICT ministry announced.

The package will include more than 70 TV programs, and commercial packages will also be available in Gusar, Khachmaz, and Shabran.

The cost of connecting to the commercial digital package will be identical to the tariffs functioning in Ganja: 52 manats. The subscriber payment for a month and the cost of tuner and SMART- payment cards will be included in the sum. The monthly cost of the commercial package is six manats.

The number of channels in the digital package in Ganja, which has 54 channels, will be increased. "Teleradio" is planning to expand the commercial package in the Zagatala region.

There are 87 TV transmitters of digital TV in Azerbaijani, and its signal covers 98 percent of the country's population. A social package, consisting of 12 television channels, is available to the public.

The passage to digital TV considers the replacement of analogue signal with digital. However, the complete disconnection of the analogue signal will not happen until a significant part of the population has decoders for digital TV.

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