BAKU, Azerbaijan, Feb. 24
By Sadraddin Aghjayev - Trend:
Azerbaijan’s Innovation Agency under the Ministry of Transport, Communications and High Technologies is increasing and expanding its support to the local start-ups every year, a source in the ministry told Trend on Feb.24.
According to the source, all the start-ups go through a categorization process, which determines their development stage.
"Depending on the stage, a start-up is assigned a category (A, B, C, D or E). Each category of the start-ups is given attention. An online start-up school program, incubation and acceleration programs are carried out,” the source said. “Besides, grants are issued and residency in technology parks is offered for the start-ups. Periodically, international events are held in the country, to which experts and investors from abroad are invited to introduce them to the local start-ups."
The source also noted that over the past year, memorandums of cooperation were signed between Azerbaijan and innovation centers from the US, Hungary and Turkey.
"A lot of work is expected to be done on implementing programs within such cooperation. These programs will raise the level of local startups to world standards," added the source.
The source also stressed that in order to stimulate startups and attract investments for them, 25 amendments to seven Azerbaijani legislative acts were prepared and proposed.
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