Azernews.Az

By Amina Nazarli

Information and communication technologies (ICT) are just as essential for modern society as any other important human needs. Today, everyday life would be utterly unthinkable without ICT.

ICT is a key technology, which is helpful in all areas of life from reducing of cost to increasing safety. The sector is the fastest growing non-oil sector in terms of increasing revenues.

Azerbaijan is the leading country of the region in terms of the ICT, with an income accounted for above $2 billion in 2014, doubling since 2009. ESCAP, Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific, has recently ranked Azerbaijan the 9th among the regional countries for the level of broadband internet penetration.

Being among the dynamically developing countries in the field of information and communication technologies, Azerbaijan takes important steps towards building the foundations of an information society.

The milestone events in the ICT sector of Azerbaijan includes creation and developing of the Electronic Government, expanding of the broadband internet services, launching of the telecommunication and low-orbit satellites.

Despite this, Azerbaijan still has some gaps in this field. The recent study of WB in the country’s IT sector detected that the share of jobs in the IT sector and its contribution to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of Azerbaijan still remains low.

The WB recommended Azerbaijan to improve the rates on products and services of IT sector, increase the effectiveness of regulatory reforms to support private investment in the IT sector and strengthen private sector leadership in the IT industry.

To take the sector to a new level, President Ilham Aliyev signed a decree on September 20 on approval of the State Program on the “National Strategy for Information Society Development in Azerbaijan” on 2016-2020.

The Communications and High Technologies Ministry is enforced to coordinate measures imposed by the State Program.

The income obtained in the sector in Azerbaijan is projected to hit $9 billion by 2020. In general, ICT development in the country takes place in three areas: knowledge, development conditions and capital.

Azerbaijan is now at a new stage of technological development, with the state being the largest customer of high-tech products in the market of the country.

The recent UN report "The State of Broadband 2016" showed that Azerbaijan has improved its positions in terms of Internet penetration among individual users, rising in the ranking by 27 points among 191 countries as compared to previous year, ranked 36 with a rate of 77 percent.

Azerbaijan also improved its position by the rate of Internet penetration among individual users in developing countries, rising up by 13 points to the 11th place among 147 countries. According to this indicator, Azerbaijan again occupies first place among the CIS countries.

Currently, digital TV signal covers 99 percent of Azerbaijan’s population and according to the authorities, the issue of transition to digital broadcasting is likely to be resolved by the end of this year. Broadcast of the digital content is performed in MPEG-4 format.

Azerbaijan also has made tremendous progress in Electronic Government. Today the number of appeals to electronic services, equals to 30 percent of the total number of appeals since the launch of the portal in 2012. Over the past two years, the number of users of the portal increased 10 times to 2.5 million people. Since last year, issuing of electronic certificates has also started.

BakuTel, celebrating its 22 edition this year, is one of the major business events opened in the country. The exhibition features stands by leading ICT companies, mobile operators, communications operators, and distributors of world-known brands.

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Amina Nazarli is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @amina_nazarli

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