Ministry: Agro-parks to increase country’s GDP

The National Fund for Entrepreneurship Support (NFES) has allocated 98.6 million manats ($58 million) for the establishment of the agro-parks so far, Samir Valiyev, Head of Administration of the Ministry of Economy told Azernews.

Valiyev added that currently, creation of 42 agro-parks in 28 regions of the country is underway.

“Work on the first stage in Khachmaz, Shamkir and Jalilabad regions has already been completed,” he said. “Currently, construction and installation work is underway in 16 agro-parks, and in 23 agro-parks preparatory work is being implemented. The geographic location of the agro-parks covers all the economic regions of the country.”

With reagrd to the role of agroparks in promoting the country’s economy the Ministry said that they are of particular importance for ensuring food security, developing entrepreneurship in the agrarian sector, increasing the competitiveness of agricultural products, expanding the export potential and increasing employment.

“The introduction of modern technologies in agro-parks will create favorable conditions for the production of competitive agricultural and food products. All this will contribute to the development of the regions as a whole. Moreover, the creation of agro-parks will provide facilities to meet the demand for raw materials in such sectors as horticulture, poultry and livestock. Import of food products will be reduced, while export opportunities for agricultural products will be expanded,” he said.

Answering the question about the ministry’s plans to ensure security of personal data at the level of global vendors (LinkedIn, Facebook, WhatsApp, etc.) he stressed that the Ministry of Transport, Communications and High Technologies of Azerbaijan is a structure responsible for security of IT users in the country.

Earlier, the Ministry reported that it was in talks with international companies [Facebook, Google, Apple] regarding their usage of the resources of the DATA-center of AzInTelecom LLC.

The DATA-center of AzInTelecom LLC has ample opportunities, in particular in rendering services to both government departments and business structures.

Further, touching upon Azerspace 2, Guluzade noted that its construction, the second telecommunications satellite of Azerbaijan, is being conducted according to the plan, adding that launch of the satellite is scheduled for mid-2018.

The satellite will be launched from the Kourou space center using the Ariane 5 ECA launch vehicle.

French company Arianespace, which earlier launched Azerbaijan's first satellite Azerspace/Africasat1a, will send the Azerspace-2/Intelsat-38 into the orbit.

The satellite's manufacturer is Space Systems Loral (SSL), which is also a provider of satellite control systems.

Deployment of wireless Wi-Fi points in the territory of Baku is handled by Baku Telephone Communication LLC. Work to expand the coverage of the wireless Internet network has been ongoing since March as part of the project “Public Wi-Fi.” The goal of the project is to provide residents and guests of the capital with access to the Internet in public places.

Speaking of new generation identity cards, the minister said that issuance will start in 2019.

Guluzade added that in the new IDs the integration of the electronic signature is envisaged.

“Microsoft is involved in the project, which became the winner of the previously announced tender,” he explained.

To date, work to adapt the infrastructure of new generation ID cards to the national certification services center has been completed. The specialists of the center conducted tests to determine their parameters and software, with the help of which it will be possible to make e-signature certificates in identity cards.

Also within the framework of the project, the integration of personal data into IDs is being tested. The list of personal data that will be entered in the identity card is already approved.