Baku, Azerbaijan, July 8
By Huseyn Valiyev - Trend:
The State Fund for Development of Information Technologies of Azerbaijan plans to increase the number of authorized organizations, through which start-up projects will be financed, a source in the Azerbaijani telecommunications market told Trend.
The negotiations are being conducted with two more banks, cooperation with whom is expected in 2015, the source said.
At present, authorized agents of the fund to finance start-up projects are Pasha Bank, Bank Respublika, Demir Bank, Rabita Bank and Bank BTB.
"A number of IT-entrepreneurs claiming loans for the development of start-up projects, have already applied to authorized banks. The submitted projects are examined and evaluated in terms of their profitability," the source said.
The credit financing of the projects will be funded at the expense of funds allocated from the state budget. The amount of funds allocated by the state to support the start-up projects for 2014 is five million AZN.
As the Ministry of Communications and High Technologies told Trend earlier, the volume of funding may be extended for an additional five million AZN by taking into account the efficient distribution of funds provided to finance projects in the current year.
The issuance of small, medium, and large loans to finance the projects are being considered. The sum of small loans may vary from 10,000 to 50,000 AZN (with a term of three years), medium - 50,000 to 500,000 AZN (up to five years), large - from 500,000 to five million AZN (up to 10 years). The interest rate on loans will not exceed 5 percent per annum.
The decree on the establishment of the State Fund for Development of Information Technologies on the balance of the Ministry of Communications and High Technologies was signed by the Azerbaijani President on March 15, 2012.
The main objectives of the fund are public policies for development and support of small enterprises in scientific and technical sphere, providing them with direct financial assistance, training of staff, which, in turn, will lead to the creation of new job opportunities in the country.
The official exchange rate on July 7 is 0.7844 AZN / USD.
Edited by CN
