Azerbaijan, Baku, October 22/Trend, H.Valiyev/
The State Fund for the Development of Information Technologies under the Ministry of Communications and Information Technologies of Azerbaijan has prepared a mechanism for the effective distribution of financial resources to support start-up projects. A start-up is a business idea designed for quick implementation, a source close to the process told Trend on Tuesday.
In order to stimulate activity in the sphere of information and communication technologies there will be preferential financing provided through the State Fund for giving loans and grants. All population categories of the republic will be able to get the benefits of the advantages of the State Fund for development of information and communication technologies.
According to the source, the prepared criteria will allow the State Fund to effectively and rationally distribute financial resources for supporting innovative ideas. The necessary documents on this issue are ready and were endorsed by the Supervisory Board of the State Fund.
It is expected that all the documents will be made public soon.
Detailed information about the work carried out by the State Fund in this direction will be presented by the Executive Director of the Fund Elchin Zeynalov within the seminar 'Star-up days' to be held in Baku form November 7 to November 9.
The first bids on start-ups are expected to be held by the end of the year. The main purpose in holding them is to select the most effective and promising projects in the sphere of information and communication technologies.
The financing of the project is expected to start from 2014. It is planned to give small, medium and large loans, as well as grants through the State Fund for development of information and communication technologies in order to finance the projects.
The amount of the small loans ranges from 10,000 to 50,000 manat over three years, medium loans from 50,000 to 500,000 manat up to five years and large loans from 500,000 to five million manat up to 10 years. The interest rate on loans will not exceed five per cent per annum.
The maximum amount of a grant can be 300,000 manat for a period of 36 months. Small grants are considered to range from 10,000 to 100,000 manat, while medium grants from 100,000 to 200,000 manat and large grants from 200,000 to 300,000 manat.
Banking and non-banking credit organisations will be involved as authorised agents for financing IT-projects.
The official exchange rate on October 22 is 0.7844 AZN/USD.
