ADB grants $500,000 to boost digital skills in Azerbaijan's railway sector

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has approved a $500,000 technical assistance grant to the government of Azerbaijan to support the development of digital skills in the country's railway sector.

Report informs citing ADB that the grant will be funded by the e-Asia Fund and Knowledge Partnership of the Republic of Korea and is set to be implemented from January 2025 to December 2026.

This technical assistance will complement the Azerbaijan Railways (ADY) digital transformation project, which was approved on September 30, 2024.

Currently, ADY's digital training program for employees is demand-driven, with departments submitting annual training requests to the HR department, which then formulates a corresponding plan. Approximately 90% of the training is planned, while the remaining 10% is aimed at meeting unforeseen needs or management recommendations.

ADY's approach to developing digital skills focuses on three key areas: attracting qualified IT specialists from outside, organizing training programs for current employees (mainly with the involvement of external contractors), and hiring young IT specialists from local universities and vocational schools.

The ADB grant will help strengthen ADY's digital competency development through strategic guidance, expert advice, and training. Specifically, the technical assistance will contribute to achieving two key objectives of the ADY digital transformation project: the complete digitalization and integration of key business processes into a single data management system, and the improvement of employees' IT competencies, including reducing the gender gap in digital skills.

Furthermore, ADB will facilitate the exchange of knowledge and best practices from countries with advanced railway systems, enhancing ADY's capacity for further digital transformation.