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Weekly review of Azerbaijani ICT sector highlights

ICT Materials 8 March 2021 07:30 (UTC +04:00)
Weekly review of Azerbaijani ICT sector highlights

BAKU, Azerbaijan, Mar.8

By Sadraddin Aghjayev - Trend:

Azerbaijan’s PASHA Bank plans to continue strengthening the achieved results and improving digital products for its customers based on their preferences in the new Development Strategy for 2021-2023, Vusal Khalilov, head of the bank's engineering department, told Trend.

According to Khalilov, the technologies which are used in PASHA Bank will be developed comprehensively and consistently, which will help avoid the risks of obsolescence of the used systems and provide customers with the most convenient digital financial instruments to achieve the best business results.

Besides, in its relationship with the business, PASHA Bank not only finances its customers but goes along with them a long way of development, which is confirmed by the heads of the companies, he said.

"As for plans for expanding cooperation, they directly depend on the implementation of the Bank's Strategy for 2021-2023, under which we will also involve IT companies in the implementation of joint projects," added the head of the bank's engineering department.

He also noted that PASHA Bank plans to gradually reduce the level of integration of old systems, which can potentially create difficulties when launching new innovative products.

Speaking about information and cybersecurity, Khalilov pointed out that this is one of the priority areas of the bank.

"PASHA Bank uses a multi-level data protection system, which allows us to be insured against known types of outside interference. The bank's dedicated team provides an ongoing analysis of possible internal and external vulnerabilities, and all bank employees are required to participate in appropriate trainings," noted the department head.

"During the recent war (from late Sept. through early Nov.2020) for liberating Azerbaijan’s territories from Armenian occupation) there had been no targeted attacks on our services, however, despite this, all measures were taken to suppress possible attacks. At the same time, all customers, even those who were abroad at that time, were able to continue to use online services as usual," he stressed.

During interview with Trend, Azerbaijani ENGINET Internet provider company’s PR manager Alina Khalafova said that the company based in Baku plans to expand coverage of communication services.

"We continue to develop our communication network in the districts of Azerbaijan. Besides Baku, the company provides its services in Sumgayit, Khirdalan, Ganja, Mingachevir, and Shirvan cities," Khalafova noted.

"Over the recent period, the coverage area of telecommunications services from BIRLink has expanded even more. Now the services are also available to residents of the cities of Shamkir and Sabirabad," she added.

The PR manager stressed that under the BIRLink brand the company offers a wide range of telecommunication solutions based on the latest FTTH (Fiber To The Home) connection technology, which allows high-speed Internet connections.

According to her, over the past year the company based on this technology, in addition to optical Internet services, IP-television and telephony, provided users with a video surveillance service, as well as introduced innovations in the digital television service.

"Last year, we purchased new digital television receivers based on the Android platform, which provide additional features such as support for multiple languages ​​and an electronic program guide, and with the help of it, we launched the Film Library service. We didn’t stop on this. Providing subscribers with only innovative solutions is a priority for us," the company’s representative said.

Khalafova also informed about social projects and projects in the educational sphere of Azerbaijan.

"Due to the fact that the main activity of ENGINET is to contribute to education, we launched the ‘Support for Virtual Education’ project, in which teachers, as part of the distant educational process, were provided with an optical connection at a speed of 30 Mb/s, mobile communications, technical support of the company AzEduNet, licensed Microsoft 365 programs, discounts on courses from the ITE center and discounts on the purchase of electronics in Smart Electronics stores. Work in this direction continues," the company’s representative summed up.

Another highlight of the outgoing week was statement of MasterCard company’s Country Manager for Azerbaijan about continuation of developing the QR payments in the country.

"We are also working to develop payments with the help of a mobile device. At present, clients of the Kapital Bank OJSC can make payments via a mobile device using a MasterCard card. I'm sure that a number of Azerbaijani banks will join this project," the county manager said.

He added that MasterCard company will soon implement a project related to payments for travel in Baku metro, using MasterCard cards.

Besides, this week Malak Mahmudova, director of Zipato Smart Home company spoke about the latest technology innovations in the world and in Azerbaijan.

Mahmudova said that the equipment used by the company has leading positions in quality.

"We are the official distributor of Zipato Smart Home’s head office in Croatia, as well as the Chinese intercom system Akuvox in Azerbaijan. Our company is constantly studying the latest technological innovations in the world and is making efforts to promote the concept of a smart home system not only in our country but also abroad. Therefore, working with the products of companies that differ in their technological solutions and meet international standards is one of our main priorities," the company’s director further said.

She noted that when the concept of a ‘smart’ home system began to form, along with the comfort that this system can provide, issues related to security were also on the agenda.

"Thanks to technologies that continue to advance every day, the protection of these systems is no longer based on the protocols used 10 years ago. The system itself is protected by the AES-256 bit encryption protocol so that physically, apart from the irresponsible approach that human factors can create, cyber-interference in the ‘smart’ home system is impossible," Mahmudova added.

She further noted ‘smart’ solutions will help to develop Azerbaijan’s liberated (as a result of the 44-day war from late Sept. through early Nov.2020 from Armenian occupation) territories on more favorable economic conditions.

"Moreover, they will increase interest in both entrepreneurship and tourism in the liberated lands," concluded Zipato’s director.

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