Azerbaijan, Baku, Oct.13 / Trend H. Veliyev /
The growth rate of the information and communication technologies (ICT) in Azerbaijan will be 18.5 percent in 2011, the Economic Development Minister Shahin Mustafayev said while discussing the draft 2011-state budget at a plenary session of the parliament.
He said the forecasted annual growth rate of the ICT sector in Azerbaijan in the next three years will hit 17.4 percent.
In general, due to implementation of measures for the development of the ICT infrastructure the services based on modern technologies become available to consumers and entrepreneurs engaged in this sphere began to expand their business outside the country.
According to the Communications Ministry's statistics, the share of ICT in the country's non-oil sector increased from 4.2 percent in 2008 to the current 4.4 percent. If the ICT income share in the country's GDP was 1.6 percent in 2008, the figure reached two percent in 2009.
According to the Ministry, the ICT sector's income share in GDP in the first half amounted to three percent. The total amount of income received from the ICT sector increased in 4.4 times over the past six years.