ICT grant competitions to start this year
By Nigar Orujova
The supervisory board of Azerbaijan's State Fund for the Development of Information Technologies has decided to review documents regarding its further work, the head of the Information Problems Research Center Yashar Hajiyev said on September 18.
According to Hajiyev, the approval of the documents is expected in the next two weeks.
The documents specify issues related to compiling contract forms between banks and the state fund, the terms and conditions of grant competitions, etc.
Hajiyev said that during the first meeting of the Supervisory Board on September 18, the administrative board of the fund was approved.
Deputy Minister of Communications and Information Technologies Elmir Velizade was elected chairman of the board. Consultant of the strategic planning department at the ICT ministry, Rauf Jabbarov, was appointed secretary of the fund.
The supervisory board comprises representatives of the ICT, education, finance and economic development ministries, as well as several non-governmental organizations.
Hajiyev said that taking into account such a composition of the Supervisory Board, he was confident that the decision-making process would be very democratic.
The fund is expected to start activity by the year-end. A first contest on grant allocation is expected in this period.
During the contest, preference will be given to projects that envision the creation of innovative products, "green" technologies, as well as projects on the development of ICT and the Internet.
The state fund was established to implement the state policy on the development and support of small enterprises in the scientific and technical fields and defines three ways of financing - investments, grants and credits.
Each Azerbaijani citizen may avail of the advantages of the ICT Fund's financing. The initial financing volume for 2013 is 15 million manats (over $19 million).
The maximum grant available is up to 300,000 manats, provided for a period of 36 months. The amount of small grants is designated at 10,000 to 100,000 manats, while medium grants could be from 100,000 to 200,000 manats and large ones -- from 200,000 to 300,000 manats.