IT projects’ state financing exceeds $ 1.8 million
By Nigar Orujova
The financing of start-up projects in IT field has reached 1.46 million manats (about $1.8 million), the State Fund for Information Technology Development under Azerbaijan’s Communications and High Technologies Ministry said.
About 560,000 manats ($713,558), of the total amount provided for the development of innovative projects, were allocated in the form of grant funding. As part of the grant support, the State Fund chose 31 startup projects.
The remaining 900,000 manats ($1.14 million) were allocated in the form of credit financing of two projects.
Currently, Pasha Bank, Bank Respublika, Demir Bank, Rabita Bank and Bank BTB are the only authorized agents to finance start-up projects.
The authorized banks of the State Fund have begun to granting loans for the development of IT-projects earlier this autumn.
Credit financing of the projects is implemented by means of the fund that are allocated from the state budget. The state allocated five million manats for the development of the start-up projects in 2014.
The amount of funding may be extended for an additional five million manats taking into account the funds provided for the financing of projects in the current year.
The small, medium and large loans are granted for financing the projects. Amount of the small loans may vary from 10,000 to 50,000 manats (over three years), medium from 50,000 to 500,000 manats (up to five years), and large from 500,000 to five million (to 10 years).
The maximum grant amount may reach 300,000 manats (for 36 months). Small grants are provided in sizes from 10 to 100,000 manats, medium - from 100,000 to 200,000 manats, and large - from 200,000 to 300,000 manats.
The interest rate of the loans will not exceed five percent per annum.
The State Fund was established to develop and support small enterprises in the scientific and technical fields through investments, grants and credits.
Earlier, the fund was set to finance 31 start-up projects that were selected out of 194 projects, presented to the fund.
These projects are mainly focused on high technology, e-payment, software applications, air navigation system, e-government, e-commerce, projects in education, health and others.