Azerbaijan, Baku /corr. Trend S.Babayeva / The concluding variant of the regional innovation zone project in Azerbaijan will be submitted to the Government by December, a source stated at Azerbaijan's Ministry of Communications and Information Technologies on 29 October.
Most of responses and recommendations of the State bodies for the project have been received. "There are positive and negative responses," the same source stated.
After all responses are received, the Ministry will devise and submitted the concluding variant of the project to the Government for consideration.
The project's consultant Booz Allen Hamilton and the specialists of the Ministry participated in devising the project.
The regional innovation zone project in Azerbaijan envisages creation of technical parks for development of small-scale and middle-scale innovation entrepreneurship, creation of regional base on production and export of electron equipments and software and transformation of the country in the beneficial transit Data Center, подготовка и развитие человеческих ресурсов для формирующегося информационного общества, внедрение IT в других отраслях.
The Ministry considers that realizing the project will serve the development of the entrepreneurship in Azerbaijan and Caspian region generally. New workplaces will be opened and it will bring to high economic growth.
According to the Ministry's assessments, implementing the project will enable to increase the profits with regards to communications and information technologies up to $4bln by 2012. In 1018-2020, this figure may reach the level of the oil revenues and make up $10-12bln. The Ministry states that the most favorable conditions for establishing such zones in Azerbaijan will appear from the beginning of 2008. If the project is approved by the Government and Parliament, it will allow an opportunity to transform Azerbaijan into a leader for ICT development in the region.