Azerbaijan, Baku, April 3 / Trend H. Valiyev /
In order to support promising 'start-ups' in the scientific and technical industries, the State Fund for IT Development will give them direct financial support, Ministry of Communications and Information Technologies of Azerbaijan told Trend on Wednesday.
According to the ministry, in the Regulations on the State Fund, the head of state specifies issues of stimulating activity in the IT area in Azerbaijan, as well as provide concessional allocation of financial resources to issue loans and grants to IT companies.
The main tasks of the fund will be the implementation of the state policy on development and support of small enterprises in the scientific and technical fields, providing them with direct financial assistance and personnel training which in turn will help create new job places.
According to the ministry, the Regulations on the State IT Development Fund provide opportunities for attracting internal and external capital to the fund's projects. Potential financing sources of the fund are the following: the public budget, the fund's own revenue, dividends from the securities acquired by the fund, voluntary donations of domestic and foreign legal entities and individuals and grants and credits from foreign countries and international organisations.
The maximum grant available may reach 300,000 manats, for a period of 36 months. Small grants are stipulated amounting to between 10, 000 and 100,000 manat, medium grants could be from 100-200,000 manat and large ones from 200 -300,000 manat.
In order to ensure the transparency of financial transactions, the State Fund will be audited every year.
As the ministry told Trend previously, the initial 15 million funding amount of the State Fund is provided by the state budget for 2013.
The official exchange rate for 3 April is 0.7846 AZN / USD.