Baku, Azerbaijan, March 8
By Huseyn Veliyev – Trend:
The State Fund for Development of Information Technologies spent 3.895 million manats for financing of IT projects in Azerbaijan in 2016, says a report on activity of the country’s Cabinet of Ministers.
Some 3.5 million manats out of this amount were allocated in the form of preferential loans on two business entities, and 395,000 manats were allocated for grant financing of 36 IT projects that became winners of competitions held earlier by the State Fund.
The Fund’s budget for financing startups and IT projects totaled four million manats in 2016.
Small, medium and large loans are provided for projects’ financing. The amount of small loans can vary from 10,000 to 50,000 manats (for three years), medium - from 50,000 to 500,000 manats (up to five years), large – from 500,000 to five million manats (up to 10 years). The annual interest rate on loans is five percent.
Currently, PASHA Bank, Bank Respublika, DemirBank, RabitaBank, Bank BTB, Kapital Bank and Xalq Bank are authorized agents of the State Fund.
The maximum amount of grant to support IT projects can be 300,000 manats (for a period of 36 months). Small grants are envisaged in the amount of 10,000 to 100,000 manats, medium - from 100,000 to 200,000 manats, and large grants - from 200,000 to 300,000 manats.