Azerbaijan plans to increase income on ICT sector to $ 9 bln by 2020

The Minister of Communications and IT plans to increase its income in the ICT sector to $8-9 billion in 2020, the Minister of Communications and IT Ali Abbasov told.The minister said that the income obtained from the sector amounted to 1.3 billion manat ($ 1.7 billion) in 2011.

The volume of the country's GDP amounted to 50 billion manat in 2011. Bringing this figure to 100 billion manat is one of the main goals for the next 8-10 years.

"According to the calculations, average annual growth of the country's gross domestic product must hit 6-6.5 percent to achieve these goals," the minister said. "It is necessary to increase the volume of the ICT sector by 4.5-5 times in the next 10 years for the ICT sector, which is one of the priority areas, to contribute to the general development of the country's economy."

The average annual growth of the ICT sector in Azerbaijan during 2004-2011 was about 25-30 percent, the minister said. The figure was 14 percent due to instability in the world financial markets in 2009. The growth of the sector amounted to 13 percent in 2011. It is necessary to keep the pace of average annual growth of this sector in the range 16-18 percent to achieve the ministry's objectives to increase the income of the ICT sector, he said. The official exchange rate is 0.7856 AZN/USD on July 3.

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