Azerbaijan, Baku / Trend corr S. Babayeva / The task of Azerbaijan for today is to increase the share of IT sector in Azerbaijan's GDP to 20-25%, the chairman of the parliamentary commission on economic policy Ziyad Samad-zade said at the meeting of Caspian IT and Communication Club.
According to Samad-zade, the specific weight of IT sector in GDP is not yet large. But it can increase through passing new bills, and the work on them is underway, including new Tax Code.
"As IT sector is considered to be the 2nd favourable for development sector after oil sector, Azerbaijani businessmen engaged in that field should intensively cooperate with the State," he said. In this connection changes to the Azerbaijani Tax Code can also be important
There are great problems in development of IT sector in Azerbaijan, and they proceed from export of Azerbaijani companies' products, the co-president of Caspian IT & Communication Club Elchin Aliyev said. "It is necessary to create conditions for development of IT companies' export potential, in particular the companies engaged in computer manufacturing, in order to enable them to sustain competition with the companies of other countries."
The director of the Azerbaijani Economic Development Ministry's economic reforms scientific research institute Namig Taghiyev said that both elemental basis and software are faintly developing in Azerbaijan. The most important problem is weak development of staff in this field.
Taxes should be used more actively for development of IT sector in Azerbaijan, the Vice-President of the Club Tahir Mirkishili said.
According to Azerbaijani Communications & IT Ministry, in January to September 2007, IT share in GDP comprised 1.7%, although GDP rise made up 31%.
Caspian IT and Communication Club is included into Caspian Integration Business Club (CIBC).