High-tech park to boost Azerbaijani software market: ministry
By Nigar Orujova
Creation of high-tech parks will encourage young programmers and promote the software market in Azerbaijan, Deputy Minister for Information and Communication Technologies Elmir Velizadeh said at a conference on the results of the WinPhone-2 contest for mobile application developers on Wednesday.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev signed a decree last November to establish High Technology Park in the country.
Velizadeh believes development of the software market and, in particular, the market for mobile applications, is very important and will positively affect the expansion of the range of e-service users. According to Velizadeh, the State Fund for Development of Information Technologies, which is to start functioning soon, will play a major part in this effort.
The State Fund under the ICT Ministry is a public organization established to assist in the implementation of the state policy in the ICT sector, support entrepreneurship, promote innovation and R&D projects, develop a modern infrastructure, render financial support to small and medium-sized business, as well as attract domestic and foreign investment.
The fund will be financed through the state budget and will support all perspective start-up projects. It will be open to all social groups of the country.
Velizadeh also spoke about the plans to build ICT University in Azerbaijan.
According to him, academic activity in this specialized university will be organized at the highest level and in line with global trends. To this end, the possibility of attracting foreign teachers with high-level skills is under discussion, he noted.
"The ICT sector is developing fast in Azerbaijan. State and private entities, as well as NGOs, play an integral role in it," Velizadeh said.
The university was established under a presidential order on February 2, after the declaration of 2013 as the Year of ICT in Azerbaijan.
The newly established university aims to shape highly qualified human resources for the creation of information-oriented society in Azerbaijan by training ICT staff.