Azerbaijan, Baku, Sept. 19 /Trend H.Valiyev/
The first start-up competition which is a business idea meant for quick realisation is expected to be held in December, a report of Azerbaijani Ministry of Communications and Information Technologies said on Thursday.
According to the ministry the main objective of the competition is to select the most effective and promising projects in the field of information and communication technologies.
Small, medium and large loans, as well as grants from the State Fund for Development of Information Technologies will be made available for funding the projects. Small loans can range from 10,000 to 50,000 manats with an issuance term of three years, medium loans from 50,000 to 500,000 manats (up to five years), and large loans from 500,000 to five million manats (up to 10 years). The interest rate on the loans will not exceed five per cent per annum.
The maximum amount of grant may reach 300,000 manats for 36 months.
Small grants are envisaged at a rate of 10,000 to 100,000 manats, medium grants from 100,000 to 200,000 manats and large grants from 200,000 to 300,000 manats.
Banking and non-banking credit organisations will be attracted for funding the IT projects. To this end in the coming days, the Fund's Executive Director Elchin Zeynalov will hold a meeting with these organisations to discuss cooperation issues.
The selection of authorised banks and non-banking credit organisations for funding the IT projects will be carried out after the approval of the criteria for their selection and the forms of contracts with them.
They are expected to be approved within the next 15 days by the Supervisory Board.
The official exchange rate for September 19 is 0.7845 AZN/USD.