Date:11/12/18

MoU on joint organization of innovation competition signed

The 2nd Republican Innovation Competition, co-organized by the Ministry of Economy and the United Nations Office in Azerbaijan and held for the purpose of promoting the goals of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, encouraging  innovations, as well as supporting the implementation of the Development Concept “Azerbaijan 2020: Looking into the Future” and the “Strategic Roadmaps for National Economy and Main Sectors of Economy”, has come to an end.
 
On December 10, the winners of the competition were awarded.
 
Speaking at the event, Minister of Economy Shahin Mustafayev said that in recent years the integration of Azerbaijan into innovation processes, promotion and realization of measures for transition to innovation economy have been reflected   in strategic programs and documents, including the “Azerbaijan 2020: Look into the Future” development concept and “Strategic Road Maps” covering various areas. A number of targets and directions of these documents coincide with the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
 
It was noted that in the context of globalization, the expansion of innovative activity at a qualitatively new level, the spread of innovative innovations, as well as their application in the field of production create new challenges for countries. Noting the fact that the Republican Innovation Competition  that has been organized for the second year in line with these challenges, aims to  further increase innovation interest, Shahin Mustafayev emphasized the importance of such events in terms of  encourage innovation activities, create the necessary conditions for the development of small and medium-sized businesses within the innovation infrastructure, improve the scientific research base and development of personnel potential of innovation activity. The Minister said that a commission composed of government agencies and UN representatives has been set up to organize the competition, over the past period a number of meetings were held in the direction of promoting competition and public awareness, ASAN Service’s “Idea Bank” platform was used to simplify the adoption of innovation projects. Noting the great interest in the 2nd Republican Innovation Competition, Minister Shahin Mustafayev said that more than 200 projects covering economic, social and environmental areas have been submitted within the competition, and such events will be held in the coming years as well.
 
United Nations Resident Coordinator in Azerbaijan Gulam Ishagzai spoke about the importance of innovation and said that such competitions would contribute to further investment in innovation field, application of scientific achievements and innovations in various areas, as well as improving the national innovation system.
 
Speaking at the event, Minister of Transport, Communications and High Technologies Ramin Guluzade said that the formation and development of innovation ecosystem in our country requires joint cooperation. He noted that today serious steps are being taken for the innovative development of the economy at the initiative and leadership of the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan, technoparks, business incubators are being created, and startup movement is expanding from year to year.
 
“As you know, one of the activities of the Ministry of Transport, Communications and High Technologies is to support innovative development. The Ministry has been providing support to startups to implement business ideas for several years, awarding grants to them on a competitive basis. Various projects, trainings and competitions are held to expand the startup movement in our country, develop innovative thinking styles among young people and involve them in this process actively,”-  he said.
 
According to Ramin  Guluzade, this year I2B - From Idea to Business project has been implemented in Baku and regions jointly with the Ministry of Transport, Communications and High Technologies,  Regional Development Public Union of Heydar Aliyev Foundation, the United Nations Development Programme and other partners. A total of 2000 participants from 8 regions, 16 higher educational institutions and 3 general education institutions joined the movement, 75 teams participated in competitions.
 
The Minister also noted that the winners and distinguished teams were provided with the opportunity to demonstrate their projects at the Bakutel-2018 exhibition.
 
“I would like to point out that a record number – over 50 startups were represented at Bakutel-2018 exhibition. This is a successful result of our work in this area. This year, the Week of Innovation was organized at Heydar Aliyev Center in Baku for the first time. Several interesting events were held within the Week of Innovation, including Azerbaijan’s “Innovation Roadmap” project was represented. As you know, the Innovation Agency under the Ministry of Transport, Communications and High Technologies was established under the Presidential Decree No.325 dated November 6, 2018.The Agency has been performing a number of important tasks set before it, such as transferring technology, expanding the startup movement, financing innovative projects, building and developing an innovative ecosystem in our country. I believe that the work within the framework of the signed memorandum today will give impetus to these processes in our country and the Agency will actively participate here,” - the Minister said.
 
Then Minister of Culture Abulfas Garayev, Chairman of the State Agency for Public Service and Social Innovation under the President Ulvi Mehdiyev emphasized the need to accelerate the application of innovations in terms of creating infrastructure, human resources development, efficient financing mechanisms, especially attracting local and foreign investments to this area to support innovative research projects.
 
Following the event, a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to coordinate joint events on the annual organization of the innovation competition was signed between the Ministry of Economy, the Ministry of Culture, the Ministry of Transport, Communications and High Technologies, the State Agency for Public Service and Social Innovation under the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan and the National Academy of Sciences of Azerbaijan and company Ernst and Young in Azerbaijan. The document was signed by Minister of Economy Shahin Mustafayev, Minister of Culture Abulfas Garayev, Minister of Transport, Communications and High Technologies Ramin Guluzade, Chairman of the State Agency for Public Service and Social Innovation under the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ulvi Mehdiyev, President of the National Academy of Sciences Akif Alizade and head of Ernst and Young in Azerbaijan Ilgar Veliyev.
 
In conclusion, the winners of the first three projects in the innovation competition and the authors of the projects awarded incentive prizes received diplomas and prizes.
 

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