Open Forum #10 Mygov e-government portal

Summary

This discussion focused on Azerbaijan’s digital government transformation, particularly the MyGov platform and related initiatives. Orkhan Ismayilov introduced the country’s digital transformation concept, which encompasses digital government, society, and businesses. He highlighted key products like Digital Bridge, MyGov, and digital login systems that form the backbone of Azerbaijan’s e-government services.

Laman Akbarova then detailed the marketing strategy for MyGov, positioning it as a user-friendly platform that simplifies citizens’ lives and strengthens government-citizen relationships. The communication approach included a 360-degree marketing campaign utilizing TV, outdoor advertising, social media, and influencer partnerships. Akbarova emphasized the importance of translating functional benefits into emotional ones to increase user adoption and digital literacy.

Elvin Hajiyev discussed the innovation aspect of Azerbaijan’s digital development, focusing on the Azerbaijan Innovation Center (AIM). He outlined five pillars for building a sustainable innovative society: market access, funding, infrastructure, talent, and culture. Hajiyev described various initiatives to support these pillars, including startup programs, venture fund establishment, educational scholarships, and cultural events to promote innovation.

The speakers highlighted Azerbaijan’s progress in e-government development, noting significant improvements in UN rankings. They also addressed challenges such as digital literacy and cultural adaptation to new technologies. Overall, the discussion showcased Azerbaijan’s comprehensive approach to digital transformation, combining technological infrastructure, user-centric services, and ecosystem development to drive innovation and improve government-citizen interactions.

Keypoints

Major discussion points:

– Overview of Azerbaijan’s digital government transformation strategy and key components (digital government, digital society, digital businesses)

– Details on MyGov platform – a unified digital government portal providing various e-services to citizens

– Marketing and communication strategy for MyGov, positioning it as a product to simplify citizens’ lives

– Azerbaijan Innovation Center (AIM) and efforts to build a startup/innovation ecosystem in the country

Overall purpose:

The purpose of this discussion was to provide an in-depth overview of Azerbaijan’s digital transformation initiatives, particularly the MyGov platform, and efforts to foster innovation and a startup ecosystem in the country. The speakers aimed to showcase Azerbaijan’s progress in e-government services and highlight their strategies for citizen engagement and ecosystem development.

Tone:

The overall tone was informative and promotional. The speakers were enthusiastic about sharing their country’s digital transformation journey and achievements. The tone remained consistent throughout, with each speaker maintaining a professional yet engaging demeanor as they presented their respective areas of focus.

Speakers

– Ilaha Baghirova, Moderator/Introducer

– Orkhan Ismayilov, Head of Strategic Partnership and International Cooperation Department at IDDA

Expertise: Digital government transformation, MyGov platform

– Laman Akbarova, Head of Marketing and PR Department at IDDA

Expertise: Communication strategy for MyGov

– Elvin Hajiyev, Head of the Azerbaijan Innovation Center

Expertise: Innovation ecosystem, Azerbaijan Innovation Center (AIM)

Azerbaijan’s Digital Transformation: A Comprehensive Approach to E-Government and Innovation

This discussion provided an in-depth overview of Azerbaijan’s digital transformation initiatives, focusing on the MyGov platform and efforts to foster innovation and a startup ecosystem in the country. The speakers, representing key departments involved in this transformation, shared insights into the strategy, implementation, and challenges of digitizing government services and building an innovation-driven economy.

Digital Government Transformation Strategy

Orkhan Ismayilov, Head of Strategic Partnership and International Cooperation Department at IDDA, introduced Azerbaijan’s digital transformation concept, built on three pillars: digital government, digital society, and digital businesses. This comprehensive approach aims to create a fully integrated digital ecosystem that enhances government services, citizen engagement, and economic growth.

Key components of the digital government strategy include:

1. Digital Bridge: A system facilitating information exchange between 42 government agencies, with over 200 million transactions conducted.

2. MyGov Platform: A unified portal for government e-services, serving as the primary interface between citizens and the government. It offers services such as birth registration, marriage registration, and digital ID usage.

3. Digital ID and Documentation Services: Enabling secure online identification and access to digital documents.

4. Proactive Government Services: Automating processes for life events, streamlining citizen interactions with the government.

Ismayilov emphasized the importance of developing hard infrastructure, updating laws and regulations, improving AI strategies, and investing in human capital to support these initiatives.

MyGov Platform and Communication Strategy

Laman Akbarova, Head of Marketing and PR Department at IDDA, detailed the marketing and communication strategy for MyGov. The platform is positioned as a user-friendly service that simplifies citizens’ lives and strengthens government-citizen relationships.

The communication approach included a comprehensive 360-degree marketing campaign utilizing:

1. Television advertisements

2. Outdoor advertising

3. Social media campaigns

4. Partnerships with influencers

Akbarova highlighted the success of their marketing efforts, noting a 300% increase in MyGov usage and a 400% increase in digital ID usage following the campaign.

A key aspect of the MyGov platform is its digital consent management feature, allowing citizens to control how their data is shared between government agencies, addressing privacy concerns and building trust in the digital ecosystem.

Innovation Ecosystem Development

Elvin Hajiyev, Head of the Azerbaijan Innovation Center (AIM), discussed the innovation aspect of Azerbaijan’s digital development. He outlined five pillars for building a sustainable innovative society: market access, funding, infrastructure, talent, and culture.

To support these pillars, AIM has implemented various initiatives:

1. Startup programs to generate ideas and develop Minimum Viable Products (MVPs)

2. Government support for establishing venture funds, including AzVC and NEXT

3. Educational scholarships to develop tech talent, including the Azerbaijan Cyber Security School

4. Physical infrastructure through AIM centers in Baku, Ganja, and Sheki, with plans for 14 more centers

5. Cultural events, awards, and PR activities to promote innovation

Hajiyev also highlighted tax benefits for IT Park residents, including a 0% corporate tax rate for 10 years, and soft landing programs for foreign companies interested in entering the Azerbaijani market.

Challenges and Progress

The speakers addressed several challenges in implementing the digital transformation strategy:

1. Digital literacy: Ongoing efforts to educate citizens about digital services and their benefits.

2. Cultural adaptation: Encouraging the adoption of new technologies and digital-first mindsets.

3. Balancing physical and digital infrastructure: Maintaining some physical service points while promoting digital alternatives.

Despite these challenges, the speakers noted Azerbaijan’s progress in e-government development, including improvements in UN rankings such as the E-Government Development Index.

Conclusion

The discussion showcased Azerbaijan’s ambitious and well-coordinated approach to digital transformation. By addressing technological, societal, and economic aspects simultaneously, the country aims to create a robust digital ecosystem that enhances government efficiency, citizen satisfaction, and innovation-driven economic growth.

As Azerbaijan continues its digital journey, key focus areas will include expanding the MyGov platform, opening additional AIM centers, continuing educational efforts to increase digital literacy, and further developing the startup ecosystem. While challenges remain, particularly in long-term sustainability and cultural adaptation, the comprehensive strategy and collaborative approach presented by the speakers indicate a promising future for Azerbaijan’s digital transformation efforts.

For further information, the speakers provided their contact details:

– Orkhan Ismayilov: [email protected]

– Laman Akbarova: [email protected]

– Elvin Hajiyev: [email protected]

Ilaha Baghirova: Great. So I just want to shortly introduce what is GovPlatform. Today we’ll have three speakers, we’ll give detailed information to you. So my GovPlatform is a pioneering government concept that seamlessly integrates citizens, state entities, state entities’ businesses into a unified e-services platform. This innovative system aims to provide a comprehensive array of cutting-edge digital services, fostering collaboration and efficiency. Through my GovPlatform, citizens gain access to innovation provided by government agencies, enabling them to engage with services electronically, acquire e-documents, verify the accuracy of their information and seamlessly manage the process of sharing their data with other institutions. This innovative system aims to provide a comprehensive array of cutting-edge digital services and fostering collaboration and efficiency. So I would like to introduce our first speaker today, Mr. Orhan Ismailov, he’s the head of Strategic Partnership and International Cooperation Department at IDDA. Please give applause to him and he will shortly introduce you about my GovPlatform. Thank you very much, Laha.

Orkhan Ismayilov: Actually today I will talk about not only my Gov, I will try to share our Azerbaijan digital government transformation conception and my Gov is the one biggest part of this strategy. But firstly we should fix our clicker. Can you change slide please? Yes, this is our digital transformation concept. There are three main components. The first one is digital government, the second one is digital society, and the last one is digital businesses. We are understanding that there are three main components, and that’s why we try to establish our digital nation on these components. There are some GNL enablers which can enable to the digital development. The first one is hard infrastructure, the second one is laws, regulations, and policies, and we are also trying to improve our AI data and cybersecurity strategy, and the last one is human capital. Human capital is so crucial for us because we understand that without proper human pool we cannot enable our digital transformation strategy. That’s why we are trying to improve digital awareness and digital literacy in our country, so there is a digital academy program and digital leadership program which we are trying to make our CDOs, our ambassadors in all government entities which we can speak the same language with them. These are our some main strategic GPIs for the program 2024 and 2026. We are trying to create live events services, we are trying to digitalize all intergovernmental processes, correspondence, and other things, and we are trying to establish open government, and our new strategy is after implementing both open data portal, we are Our main aim is to shift our strategy from open data portal to the open API. And these are our some strategic GPIs in the field of digital society and digital businesses. We have Digimate program which we are trying to help the SMEs to digitalization of the SMEs. And we have digital library which we provide this type of SMEs with the digital tools. And now I will talk about our digital government products. The first one is Digital Bridge. Digital Bridge is the backbone of the digital government. You cannot imagine digital government without the Digital Bridge. This is our national information exchange system between the government entities. If you want to establish digital government, firstly you should create your information bridge system. Then you can establish your digital government on the top of this system. And as you know, we are the environmental friendly country. We hosted COVID-19 in our country this year. And that’s why this type of services to help us to save trees and environment in this way. And these are main statistical statistics about digital bridge systems. There is more than 71 government agencies who integrated to our system. From the beginning of the implementation of digital bridge to this day, more than 1 billion transactions have been conducted through our system. And as I mentioned already, this system helped us to save more than 10,000 trees annually. And there is a big botanical garden in our country, in our capital city. As our calculation through this system, we saved two times our botanical garden risk. And I will show a brief video about digital bridge, which will make our vision more clear. Yes, there is no voice of the video, but there is subtitles. I think so you can catch it from subtitles. Yes, our next product is MIGO. MIGO is Unified Digital Government Portal, which is to ensure a secure, transparent and user-friendly digital connection between citizens and government and businesses. And in our country, there is more than 2,000 digital acts changed, and now in our country, the digital ID is officially accepted by all of government entities and businesses. It means that in our country, physical documents is equal to digital documents. Citizens can get any type of governmental and private services without their physical ID. There is not only ID card, there is driver’s license, foreign passport and other information in the system. And we are providing this information system, this information and citizen certificates through the MIGO portal. And we are trying to establish our digital public services on the basis of MIGO. of the live events because we understand that at the previous time, not only in our country but the digital government services created on the basis of the services. But we now understand that it’s so easy for citizens to find the proper services which meet them on the basis of live events like, for example, birth, death or marriage registration is already digitalized in our country. And we are trying to create proactive services. It means that, for example, when a citizen reaches the pension age, there is no need to collect any documents or apply any government entities. Government proactively sends just notification to the citizens that you have reached your pension age and you can take your bank card, for example, from the sound bank. And this is the next video about my goal. I hope the sound problem is fixed already. Let’s check. Yes? Okay. And our next product is digital login. This is the single sign-on system. So the system citizens can enter any integrated public and private digital portals. And it means that it helps us to avoid… to use the several passwords and login information in the several portals. There is only one registration need to enter all integrated governmental services. These are the statistics about this product and the next video is about digital login. Yes, this is the CIMA, CIMA is a new generation of advanced digital signature of Microsoft. Thank you. And this is working on actually the face recognition technologies and AI-based. And these are the main things about usage of this product. And the last one is digital document circulation subsystems. Through this subsystem, all our intergovernmental official correspondence is fully digitalized. And there is no need to send any letters between governmental entities. And my last video is about this product. Yes, at the end, I would like to say that these are not all our digital governmental solutions. There are other solutions like e-social, e-court, e- procurement. health care, agro, e-policy, ecology and etc. And at the end of the day, due to our all this type of efforts, we have increased our places nine times in the UN e-government development indexes. So thank you very much for your participating, thank you very much for your attention and now the stage is yours.

Ilaha Baghirova: Thank you Mr. Ismailov for giving information about e-government in Azerbaijan. Now, Laman Akbari will continue the interesting session. He is the head of the marketing and PR department at IDDA. So welcome Laman

Laman Akbarova: Now? Okay, hi, nice to meet you all. So we’re gonna be talking about the communication strategy of the same products that Mr. Orhan has mentioned and we’re gonna go with the main product, MyGov, which we have represented and positioned as a ready product for our audience and applied the 360 marketing communication strategy. So yeah, that’s me. I’m the head of brand and marketing communications in our agency. So basically we are working with all kinds of the products with B2B, G2B and G2C, all kinds of products that were mentioned by Orhan. So we will briefly start with what’s MyGov. I bet you guys already know from the presentation but we will just go so that you could catch the whole concept in here. MyGov is a unified open government platform that via digitalization will simplify the life of our citizens, the citizens of Azerbaijan. Why? Why there is MyGov in there? Of course, like there can be a lot of reasons but the main reasons that we have indicated for ourselves in order to build a nice communication strategy is of course to provide the product that will ease the life of our citizens in Azerbaijan. And also, as we’re a government sector, we need to sustain and develop the relationship between our citizens and our government. And true to say, there are not a lot of products like ours. And the government was never, I would not say never, but seldomly connecting and representing the products straightforwardly to the citizens. So this is something new that we’re bringing in Azerbaijan. So were there any challenges? Of course. Of course, there is no country without the challenge. There is no product without the challenge. And same goes with MyGov. I have listed three of them. There are more of them. But the main ones that we have indicated for ourselves are strong presence of offline services. We’re kind of conservative as a country, as a population. We pile up our documents. If you go to my grandmother’s house, you will see the special place she collects her documents. If you go to any person over 50 years old, they will never accept the digitalized docs equal to the physical ones. So offline service provider, which is working very fast and has eased the life of population 10 years ago, is there. And this is our main competitor and the main, let’s say, government body that we’re competing with. Also, I mean, thoughts of population. I mentioned about my grandmother and the general population that goes on in Azerbaijan. And integration of services and documentation in timely manner. So when we talk about MyGov, it’s not just an app which you can open and have everything inside. It’s an ongoing process. We bring one documentation, kind of documentation. Then we bring the second kind of services. And it has to be communicated in the right target audience on the right channels. So as I said, we had to create the anticipation. We didn’t want to just say, hi, hello, this is MyGov, just download it. We wanted to make it interactive. interesting for our citizens, something exciting, something that they would wait for. And that’s why we started with looking into the concept of the whole app. And what we came up with is that the MyGov is a point of connection, OK, if we talk about the abstract of the whole app, a point where citizens means government, and the point where processes start and will eventually end. And this is something that only we will give on the market. The application, where you will get in, start your process, and you will end your process without going anywhere physically, without spending your time on things that doesn’t matter, like traffic. And instead, spend time with your family, spend time with your friends, and live just, let’s say, developed, happy life. And that’s where exactly we took it as the main point, where the process start and where it will end. And our creative idea was the start here. I will explain what we mean by start here. You may ask, what starts here? MyGov starts here. So this is the point where life without queue starts, where birth registration starts, where comfort starts, where digital starts, and where the future of government services starts. Of course, in order to make the communication successful and not only, but generally, it’s very important to have both of the functional and emotional benefits, and especially in our case. So when we talk about the simplification of life, we’re talking about being free, when we translate it, that we will give to our citizens. When we talk about staying connected, we’re talking about feeling connected. When we have a good user experience, we’re saying that the citizen stays in control, the user stays in control of the app. Why it’s important? of course. We have researched and we, of course, we’re not the first country who is, and we never said we were the first country who is bringing up some product like this, so we researched and researched, and as it turned out, a lot of governments, they believe and they have adopted it that the benefits, as I said, the functional benefit, they have to be translated into material and into emotions in order to make it successful. So, and it’s very important to position government as responsive, protective, and transversal, and that’s what exactly what we did. We are positioning, positioned as responsive, protective, transversal. We are not saying that this is the app for you, we’re saying that this app makes you feel something. I will tell you more about this in the next slide, and what’s really mattered in here is that government, here, I, as a government, am by your side wherever you are, because I care, and this is the I care moment is something crucial, and if we will go to the mission statement, you can see that MyGov mission is to enhance the quality of life of citizen and reflect our commitment into caring for each and every citizen. That’s what we wanted to portray as an agency, and if we will go in here, again, whatever started here, saving time, comfort, and this is something that the government actually has an umbrella. The care started here. The moment that the government cares about just starts with MyGov. So, when we go back to the product, MyGov is not only about the digital documentation, it’s not only about the starting and ending point, it’s about the services it’s bringing. So, digital documentation, the ones that Orhan has mentioned before, digital ID, and there is a driving license. When we go to the live events, there are three live events that we have started communicating, and we have right now, and we’re having an upcoming plan for the next year for three more. I will talk about them in more detail, and digital services. There are lots of them, these digital services. services, and I will show you the examples of communication in here. So yeah, as I said, we went to the MyGov as a physical FMCG product, OK? We decided to communicate it in 360 and show that the government can communicate not worse than the private sector. And that’s why we have a TV copy. We’re going to out of home. We have radio placement. We have BTL that is starting in the regions as well. We are massive in PR, both for our minister side and also from the influencing side in the e-news and on TV, and also social media, which everyone knows is a powerful tool in any country right now. So I will show you also the piece of content because, of course, the digital literacy is mainly developed in the capital city and less developed in the rural, let’s say, places. We are creating the how-to videos in order for them to understand how to use the service. Should I play it like this? OK, I think you can hear it in Azerbaijan, but we have added the lines in here. I’m not going to show the whole one. OK. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . they can come to the pickup, drop shipping, they can come to the railway station and use the digital ID instead of the physical one. So there are no need to carry it around. Also, there are services that I mentioned before. So conviction certificate, notarial certificate, and everything that you can actually, communal services within our application that you can use without any physical presence at any other government body. So we’re communicating them as well. And for each of them, we have the separate content, as you can see, as a key visual, and also how-to videos, plus the PR coverage that I mentioned before. This is the kind of also how-tos that we basically do with my in-house team. These guys are working in marketing as well. So we’re recording them, we’re post-production them ourselves as well in order to create more simple content for our citizens. Yeah. Also, of course, as I said, it’s very important to work with social media and influencers, super important, because if we go to statistics, 86% of Azerbaijan population is watching TV, okay? Even though the social media is here, 86% of people still watch TV, so that’s why we are on TV. And the rest, more young generation, let’s say, they’re online, okay? So people in my age, they don’t have the TV, the national TV set in their homes. They use YouTube, they use Netflix, and that’s it. So that’s in order to tackle them as well, and tackle them within the social media, and of course, through YouTube and et cetera, we have influencers, so we’re using someone. on with the high, of course, high engagement rates. And they’re doing this how-to, very regular and very simple how-to videos as well. Here I’m going to have the TVC, OK, the main copy, but it’s in Azerbaijan. It’s not going to be with sounds, I hope. It’s in Azerbaijan, and it’s very long, so I’m going to skip it. I will just try to show you the content that we have for our TV and the banners that we created. So during some series or during some shows on TV, we have bought the place as a banner in order to communicate my goal. So this is how it goes. Here we’re, again, communicating the notarial services, and we’re having the call to action for people to download it. Same goes for the general educative digital ID communication. And here, the main idea of our TVC here, it’s very emotional, right? So we’re showing the use of our grandparents, how they used to have this documentation and piling them up, and how many difficulties they were going through. For example, this guy is trying to buy a car, and he cannot because he has his documentation left at home. And then we’re transferring and showing everyone that now you don’t need to have it. You have MyGov, which is simplifying your life. MyGov, always with you. MyGov is closer to the government. These are two live events that also are out. So one is to be a parent, which you get the certificate of your child, newborn child, through MyGov. You can give the name of your child, register, and get your physical, then, certificate at the point of physical office. And then also get married. In order to get married, now Azerbaijan population doesn’t need to go anywhere. You write the code of your ID, and the code of ID of the person you want to get married with, and they just get the notification. that someone wants to marry you, and you simply accept it. And the whole process on the back is going. And then you have a physical wedding, you get your certificate, and everyone is happy. So this is like super, super cool thing for Azerbaijan and super innovative thing that we have launched. And also, other than this kind of cool features and content, we also have educative content. As I said, digital literacy is not on the point as in Europe or maybe in some very developed countries. So this is part of our job as well in order to actually increase the digital literacy. And this kind of key visuals, and we have long captions to them or long interviews that we’re giving on social media, is about the consultant management, for example. MyGov is the first app in Azerbaijan that brings this feature to citizens. People can actually control what kind of data they’re sharing with government bodies, with the banks. For example, I have a mortgage, right? I do. And bank asks for my permission once. And then they can use my data as much as they want. And for example, before MyGov, I didn’t know about that. Now I can access it, and I can actually stop them using my data. And they will have to call me again and ask for it if they need it. So in order to deliver this message, because if you ask the general public, they would say, why do I need it? OK, my data is government data. They can use it. In order to increase the importance of this, in order to explain why it’s important, we have this separate kind of informative educational content that we’re sharing within the MyGov platform. Yeah, and in the end, this is just the numbers for the last 25 days. I just wanted to show you how we’re doing. It’s not the final numbers, and also not the final report. But as you can see, as I said, YouTube YouTube, OLVs, everything placed for young generation. This is a digital marketing number. So we brought almost 35,000 downloads last month in 20, 25 days, which is a super high number because we have compared this to the funnel of our competitors or other public sectors, and this is a very high number. And we have high amount of impressions, which are going for 70% of them are organic right now, which is a great number. And YouTube views, which is over the million. Same goes for meta ads, more than 8 million impressions, more than 30,000 clicks, and total views almost for 4 million. What we’re trying to do in the next year and trying to actually update is our strategy within the YouTube because there are a lot of shorts, a lot of TikTok stuff that we have not activated yet. And we believe that it will give us even more numbers that we’re looking for and more exposure to the target audiences that we’re working with. So that’s the last slide of my presentation. And I hope you enjoyed it. And I would be happy to answer any of your questions. Follow us, please follow us on Instagram. We’re going as a MyGov. I can share the page if you’re interested. And I hope you will enjoy the next speaker. And we’re going to talk about AIM. Thank you very much. Thank you.

Ilaha Baghirova: Thank you very much, Laman Khanem. Now, Elvin Hajiyev, the head of the Azerbaijan Innovation Center will talk about another part of the story. Welcome. Thank you.

Elvin Hajiyev: Thank you, Laha. The clicker, Laman. Laman, clicker. Did you switch? My slide. Yes. Hello, everyone. Thank you for staying with us. Unfortunately, I don’t have those fancy videos, but I will try to explain what our agency does in terms of the innovation. So from the name, you can understand it’s Innovation and Digital Development Agency. My colleagues have been talking about what we do most in the digital part, which is basically building the products. And I would slightly touch on what we do for the innovation. And I will talk to you about the Azerbaijan Innovation Center that we have recently launched. So studying the best practices around the world or among the countries, it comes clear that in order to have a sustainable, well-functioning, innovative society, there are five main pillars that we have to foresee. And we identify them as following, which is the market access for the startups and the companies, having access to funding, access to infrastructure, access to talent and culture. And I will go a little bit in the details with each of these pillars and explain what we do for each of these pillars as the agency. So obviously, when you want to have this ecosystem functioning, you have to have some sort of access to the market for the startups, for the investors, for the foreign companies, IT companies to work with. For that to happen, we have to create the ecosystem to emerge. And in order to do so, we work with lots of universities within the country, third-party vendors. And we do lots of programs throughout, not only in Bakur, the capital city, throughout other cities of the country. So for the last two years, out of these programs, we managed to get more than 600 unique ideas, out of which we achieved to get to 165 MVPs, which is the minimum viable products for the startups. And out of that, obviously, we go to the incubation and the acceleration programs for these MVPs to grow further. And once that happens, we kind of try to have the match with the market. to our investors and the venture funds to get them to the next steps. Parallel to that, we take our startups, it’s not just about in the country, and we go to international events. So last two years, we have taken probably 18, close to 20 events globally, whether it’s the Middle East, MENA region, Europe, Asia, and we sponsor these events and we take our startups and our IT companies and we take them to international global markets so they can build the communications, collaborations, and networking in order to grow their businesses. Access to funding. So when it comes to funding of the startups and ecosystem, it’s a bit closed box for Azerbaijani society because, you know, being part of the Soviet Union for 70 years and now trying to open up, modernize the economy and the system, and it’s not that very easy task. So the government took the first steps to initiate the venture funds establishment in Azerbaijan. The very first fund that, with our support and help, is established is the Caucasus Ventures, and there is another private company that established the Sabah Fund, and recently we seen the emergement of the InMerge Fund established, which is currently around 35 million USD under the management. The number is not that big yet, but the ecosystem is relatively new, so we understand that in the coming years it’s going to grow to probably more than 50 million, and once we have a few more success stories coming up, it will eventually grow further. So we help and invest our startups through these venture funds, not directly. Access to talent. Obviously, once you have the market access and you have the investment and the money in place, you need to have the people who will work in these companies and the startups. And the education part, as my colleagues also mentioned, we take it very seriously as an agency, as a ministry. So far we have managed to provide scholarships. to more than 9,000 students in the last two years. And we are trying to create this pool of talents that can be accessible to foreign companies when they come to Azerbaijan to open their subsidiaries or recreate or use this pool as the outsource for their projects. Also, we have created the Azerbaijan Cyber Security School, which is graduating and the graduates start to work in the government entities and organizations that foresee the cyber security issues or the processes in the country. And we also support several schools, which is like Holberton Schools, and it’s a national franchise, peer-to-peer coding school that has probably two cohorts throughout the year and gives graduates to the ecosystem. Culture. Culture is a big issue, I would say, for us, because as I mentioned, as a former Soviet Union country, when you talk about startup innovation, it’s a very close phenomenon for our people. Still, a significant number of our community and society, I don’t wanna say don’t get it, but probably doesn’t have the necessary tools and understanding of what it should be. So as an agency, we try to change this culture. Resources that we have, we make lots of events, we make the community events, networking events, and recently, last week, we actually had the second EDA Awards, which we select like the main ecosystem players and startups, and we, during the, for the 11th nomination, and we do this event, so we kind of, like mini Oscar events for our innovation ecosystem, which stimulate the companies and the individuals to take part here. Lots of meetups, and we do international PR as well to change that culture. And last pillar is obviously access to the infrastructure. So when you have the market in the place. moving, and then you have the talent pool, and then you have to provide the necessary for them to grow. This is where I particularly participate mostly. And so our ministry does kind of a broader scale of infrastructure support, which is the access to the fixed line of networks, building the data centers, and all these global scale projects. But as an agency, we do mostly on the physical space for our startups to come and operate. So this is where I’m shifting to the project that I mentioned, which is the Azerbaijan Innovation Center. We call it Azerbaijan Innovation Merkazi. Merkazi stands for the center. But we decided to keep it as AIM, because it serves for our purpose, and it describes what we want to get achieved easily. So this is the building that we have opened very recently. Actually, our first opening was on the 2nd of October. So what we try to achieve here is basically, it’s going to be a network of physical spaces. But we don’t want to limit it just with the physical space. So yes, we are going to have the co-working office spaces, meeting rooms, and several resources that are required for the startups and the companies and the mentors to come, sit, and work together, which you can see from the photos. The first space that we opened in Baku very recently. And we are planning to open the second store, I mean, not store, the branch next week. And for the next year, we are planning to do three more locations throughout the country. And it’s not just like innovation centers. We are also supporting to build R&D labs and centers in one of the universities this year. Already started doing that. And next year, we are sponsoring to financing to build R&D center. within the universities. So it’s going to be branded as like powered by AIM. And it’s not just like innovation center. It’s going to be different formats as well. So what we do here, it’s not obviously, as we say, just our goal is not to send the tables or the desk or the meeting rooms to our residents, right? We want to make it to become as the new epicenter of the ecosystem. And we have been open for then two months. And we already have probably more than 35 events took place in our centers. And we do the meetups, the workshops, the trainings. We have the conferences. And during COP 29, we had two big events took place in our centers, where innovators, business people come together. They discuss. They do networking. And they do celebrations for the graduations. This is the photo from the Halberton School cohort, the graduation. It’s becoming a vibrant place, which makes us very happy. The collaboration and networking is very important for the ecosystem growth. And lastly, other than providing the physical space and doing all these events, we also planning to build several products within AIM. One of the main tools that the IT Park residency startups are companies. So mostly in the IT Parks, you have to be physically present there. But in our case, we have the mandate to give virtual residency to our residents. So you may have your own office in different parts of the country. But you can still apply for the residency. And you will still get the tax benefits, the social taxes, the property taxes, the personal income tax. You get tax deduction on your dividends that you make. So all these benefits that you may get on the physical techno parks or IT parks, some countries call, you can get virtually as well. We do soft landing programs dedicated to working on this. This is relatively new, by the way. We recently started doing that. And Soft Landing is going to work for the foreign companies who want to come to Azerbaijan and get into the market. And when you come to Azerbaijan, it’s not just us per se, but you can work with the region as well, which is South Caucasus. And you can have the access to the Central Asian through our connections and the government bodies. Business support, we will provide technical or mentorship or any kind of business support that our newly established businesses or startups that will require along the road. And we are also creating these excellent centers in different verticals. So we are closely working with different industries in the country, whether it’s the financial sector, whether it’s the defense sector. And our goal is to kind of stimulate and grow the ecosystem around the specific verticals that are growing organically and are ready to support us along the road. Obviously, we have the future plans. I’m not going to go into details in each of them. But as a country, as an organization, as a state organization, we want to stimulate this growth. So three years IDA has been supporting. We play as a state agency, as an ecosystem enabler. So we try to help the ecosystem so that it grows. But we have seen that it’s not enough. The ecosystem is very young, very immature. So we felt the necessity to step in and create another brand that will work with the ecosystem players hand-to-hand to help the growth of whether it’s the startups, whether it’s the IT companies, whether you put the country on the map in the regional progress, et cetera. So in the next two years, probably, we want to become stronger within the country, open our spaces, and then grow regionally and internationally. I put my contacts in case you want to take the ESP. In case you have any questions you want you can this is my whatsapp telegram number as well and my email Please please feel free to contact me. I’ll be more than happy to assist you guys and Thank you for your attention and bearing with us

Agreement Points

Digital transformation strategy

Orkhan Ismayilov

Laman Akbarova

Elvin Hajiyev

Digital government strategy based on three pillars: digital government, digital society, digital businesses

Communication strategy to promote MyGov and increase digital literacy

Azerbaijan Innovation Center (AIM) to support startup ecosystem

All speakers emphasized the importance of a comprehensive digital transformation strategy that encompasses government services, society, and businesses, with specific initiatives to support each area.

Importance of digital literacy and cultural change

Laman Akbarova

Elvin Hajiyev

Educational content to increase digital literacy

Building innovation culture through events, awards, and PR

Both speakers highlighted the need to increase digital literacy and promote a culture of innovation in Azerbaijan through various educational and promotional activities.

Similar Viewpoints

Both speakers emphasized the importance of MyGov as a central platform for digital government services and the need for a comprehensive communication strategy to promote its adoption.

Orkhan Ismayilov

Laman Akbarova

MyGov platform as unified portal for government e-services

Communication strategy to promote MyGov and increase digital literacy

Both speakers recognized the challenge of changing traditional mindsets and the need for targeted efforts to promote digital adoption and innovation culture.

Laman Akbarova

Elvin Hajiyev

Overcoming preference for offline services and physical documents

Building innovation culture through events, awards, and PR

Unexpected Consensus

Importance of physical infrastructure alongside digital services

Orkhan Ismayilov

Elvin Hajiyev

Digital Bridge for information exchange between government agencies

Physical and virtual infrastructure through AIM centers

While focusing on digital transformation, both speakers unexpectedly emphasized the importance of physical infrastructure to support digital initiatives, showing a balanced approach to development.

Overall Assessment

Summary

The speakers demonstrated strong agreement on the need for a comprehensive digital transformation strategy, the importance of MyGov as a central platform, the need to increase digital literacy, and the importance of supporting innovation and startups.

Consensus level

High level of consensus among speakers, indicating a well-coordinated approach to digital transformation in Azerbaijan. This alignment suggests a strong potential for successful implementation of the discussed initiatives.

Different Viewpoints

Unexpected Differences

Overall Assessment

summary

No significant areas of disagreement were identified among the speakers.

difference_level

The level of disagreement appears to be minimal or non-existent. The speakers presented complementary information about different aspects of Azerbaijan’s digital government transformation and innovation ecosystem development, suggesting a unified approach and strategy.

Partial Agreements

Similar Viewpoints

Both speakers emphasized the importance of MyGov as a central platform for digital government services and the need for a comprehensive communication strategy to promote its adoption.

Orkhan Ismayilov

Laman Akbarova

MyGov platform as unified portal for government e-services

Communication strategy to promote MyGov and increase digital literacy

Both speakers recognized the challenge of changing traditional mindsets and the need for targeted efforts to promote digital adoption and innovation culture.

Laman Akbarova

Elvin Hajiyev

Overcoming preference for offline services and physical documents

Building innovation culture through events, awards, and PR

Key Takeaways

Azerbaijan is implementing a comprehensive digital government transformation strategy based on three pillars: digital government, digital society, and digital businesses

The MyGov platform serves as a unified portal for government e-services, aiming to simplify citizens’ interactions with government

A multi-channel marketing approach is being used to promote MyGov and increase digital literacy among citizens

The Azerbaijan Innovation Center (AIM) has been established to support the startup ecosystem and foster innovation

Key digital government products include Digital Bridge for inter-agency information exchange, digital ID and documentation services, and proactive government services for life events

Challenges in digital adoption include overcoming preferences for offline services and physical documents, especially among older generations

Resolutions and Action Items

Expand the MyGov platform to include more services and life events

Open additional AIM centers throughout the country

Continue educational efforts to increase digital literacy

Further develop the startup ecosystem through funding, infrastructure, and talent development programs

Unresolved Issues

Long-term sustainability of the digital transformation efforts

Measuring the impact of digital services on citizen satisfaction and government efficiency

Addressing potential cybersecurity concerns as more services move online

Suggested Compromises

Maintaining some physical service points while promoting digital alternatives to ease the transition for less tech-savvy citizens

Offering both virtual and physical residency options for startups in the AIM program

We are understanding that there are three main components, and that’s why we try to establish our digital nation on these components. There are some GNL enablers which can enable to the digital development. The first one is hard infrastructure, the second one is laws, regulations, and policies, and we are also trying to improve our AI data and cybersecurity strategy, and the last one is human capital.

speaker

Orkhan Ismayilov

reason

This comment provides a comprehensive framework for digital transformation, highlighting key components and enablers. It’s insightful because it demonstrates a holistic approach to digital development, considering not just technology but also legal, policy, and human aspects.

impact

This set the tone for the rest of the discussion by establishing the broad context of Azerbaijan’s digital transformation efforts. It led to more detailed explanations of specific initiatives within this framework.

We are positioning, positioned as responsive, protective, transversal. We are not saying that this is the app for you, we’re saying that this app makes you feel something.

speaker

Laman Akbarova

reason

This comment reveals a sophisticated marketing approach that focuses on emotional connection rather than just functionality. It’s thought-provoking because it shows how government services are being marketed more like consumer products.

impact

This shifted the discussion towards the importance of user experience and public perception in government digital initiatives. It led to a detailed explanation of the communication strategy for MyGov.

So studying the best practices around the world or among the countries, it comes clear that in order to have a sustainable, well-functioning, innovative society, there are five main pillars that we have to foresee. And we identify them as following, which is the market access for the startups and the companies, having access to funding, access to infrastructure, access to talent and culture.

speaker

Elvin Hajiyev

reason

This comment introduces a structured approach to building an innovation ecosystem. It’s insightful because it breaks down the complex task of fostering innovation into specific, actionable areas.

impact

This comment shifted the discussion from specific digital products to the broader innovation ecosystem. It led to a detailed explanation of each pillar and Azerbaijan’s efforts in these areas.

Overall Assessment

These key comments shaped the discussion by providing a comprehensive view of Azerbaijan’s digital transformation and innovation efforts. They moved the conversation from high-level strategy to specific implementations, and from technology-focused discussions to considerations of user experience, culture, and ecosystem development. The speakers demonstrated a sophisticated understanding of both the technical and human aspects of digital transformation, revealing Azerbaijan’s ambition to not just digitize services, but to fundamentally transform its economy and society through technology and innovation.