Some $1.8 billion invested in Azerbaijai ICT sector

According to information of the Ministry of Communications and Information Technologies, roughly $1.8 billion has been invested in Azerbaijan's ICT sector over the past 20 years.

The income in the ICT sector increased 140 times in the past 20 years. The annual rate of development of the ICT sector in Azerbaijan amounted to 30-32 percent in 2004-2010. Over the years, the volume of the IT sector has extended six times with exports growing five times.

Thanks to support for the ICT sector in 1991-2011, new fixed and mobile operators and ICT manufacturers have appeared on the market.

The necessary steps have also been carried out to ensure healthy competition. Over the past 20 years the private sector's volume in the ICT market reached 80 percent as a result.

In 1991-2011, the country adopted new legislation and legal documents, started large-scale e-government projects, and also launched a TASIM fiber-optic backbone, while developing heavily the space industry and education.

The number of Internet users, subscribers of mobile and fixed communications increased. Based on the ministry's statistics, Internet penetration in Azerbaijan reached 60 percent, half of whom are users of broadband Internet, which exceeds the average global rate by 2.5 times.

Today, the volume of incoming traffic in Azerbaijan is 40 Gbps, which allows the country to act as an Internet exporter to neighboring countries.

---