Criteria for startups in Azerbaijan should be revised

In recent years, various Azerbaijani structures have begun to focus more on supporting innovative projects and startups. These steps include the introduction of tax incentives for startups in the State Tax Service under the Ministry of Economy, approval of a startup certificate by the Agency for the Development of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises, and the creation of several relevant structures.

Report has discussed with ICT specialist Elvin Abbasov the issues related to steps the government agencies and businesses in Azerbaijan should take when the startup movement is gaining momentum around the world and in the country.

- Several years ago, you proposed the government to create national alternative Internet resources. How much money is needed to implement this project?

- Some projects have a business purpose. There are heads of companies, businessmen who invest in them. This network is believed to become successful and profitable in a few years. But some projects are needed to be solved. When proposing these projects to some government agencies, one should keep in mind that they are designed for future goals. What is required here is forward-thinking people who understand that the creation of these alternatives is future-oriented. The state has many levers for this. For example, there are such structures as the Information Computing Center (ICC), AzInTelecom under the Ministry of Transport, Communications and High Technologies. There is a modern cloud system AzInTelecom. Entrepreneurs or citizens can finance some of these projects and create alternatives options. I want to repeat that this is a social and future-oriented project.

There are many short-term business projects in Azerbaijan. Since many in Azerbaijan aim for a shorter time frame and profit, they do not consider extreme conditions such as a pandemic or martial law. But we have some projects designed for the next 10-15 years and are not aimed at making a profit in a short time.

- Interestingly, the population and territory of Israel are several times smaller than in Azerbaijan. But in terms of innovation and successful startups, this country ranks second in the world. In Azerbaijan, almost every agency has a separate structure that supports startups. Some people believe that startups are not run from a single-center, hence our country’s inefficiency. How true are these statements, or why can we not be like Israel?

- Here, we can give a few more examples. A small country like the Netherlands competes with the United Staes in agriculture today. But geographically, it is more than 100 times smaller than the US. It also has low water resources and poor-quality land. But they made revolutionary innovations in agriculture. Tractors and other machinery they currently use are driven by artificial intelligence, not human. What they have done is a prime example of the 4th industrial revolution.

The Azerbaijani Ministry of Agriculture has its fund, which provides support to startups. Besides, the Innovation Agency of the Ministry of Transport, Communications and High Technologies, Innoland of the Asan Service, and the Ministry of Economy have four different structures. I think centralization is unnecessary. That’s because their specialists must make decisions for startups that will support the development of the institution.

However, we thought about preparing coordination with the central platform. We made our proposals to the government about this. We are currently developing a project.

To become a nation of startups, the vision of the people behind these ideas must be focused on the longer term. Our people like short-term perspective. We need to reconsider our criteria to achieve greater success in startups as well. If we have such projects, the state can provide one-time assistance or logistic support.