Azerbaijan, Baku /corr. Trend S.Babayeva / In the first half year, AZN 56.9 mln was invested in the IT sphere of Azerbaijan and it makes up 2.1% of the gross investments to the economy, reported the Minister of Communications and Information Technology of Azerbaijan, Ali Abbasov, on 1 August during the meeting with the Cabinet Ministers dedicated to the results of the social-economic development in the first half year of 2007 and tasks being faced.
According to him, since the beginning of the year, the number of landline telephone apparatus increased by 54,000 and totaled 1.231 mln. "Yet these indicators cannot keep pace with the average world indicators," the Minister said. Currently there was an average of 20.2 telephones per 100 persons in the world, but the figure in Azerbaijan totals 14.4.
Over the first half year, the average monthly salary of IT workers in Azerbaijan increased by 40% and amounted to AZN 300. This figure is 60% more than the average monthly salary in the Country.