BAKU, Azerbaijan, Jan.15
By Sadraddin Aghjayev - Trend:
The implementation of the Smart City project requires the immediate implementation of all necessary solutions in accordance with the project concept, Ramil Eyyubov, head of the program for accelerating digitalization in Azerbaijan, told Trend.
According to Eyyubov, such projects will be implemented in all major cities of the world in the near future, and it is very important for Azerbaijan to implement these projects as early as possible. This will enable our country to be ready for tomorrow, to increase its competitiveness in global markets. The implementation of such projects requires a long period of time because digitalization is a continuous process rather than a one-time solution.
In turn, the regional director of the world-famous CISCO company Vladimir Orlov said that the Smart City project initiative in Azerbaijan has been slightly expanded.
"We call the initiative the Smart Nation, increasing the number of services that will be automated or implemented in Azerbaijan, and their volume goes beyond the Smart City concept," he noted.
As an example, Orlov pointed out the education sector, which is not included in the Smart City concept but is part of it.
"There is a Smart Nation initiative, within which I would single out Smart City, and initiatives that are applied by various government agencies in the field of IoT (Internet of Things) and smart solutions,” he said. “All the smart solutions are being implemented in Azerbaijan today, regardless of whether the Smart City concept is developed or not. That is, two simultaneous directions of development are being formed - public and private.”
"CISCO cannot talk about the existence of Smart Nation today, since state structures in Azerbaijan have their own strategies, pilot projects, and other solutions," the director added.
He also highlighted the economic and social effects of this project.
“Moreover, for each country, for each city, its own individual strategy can be built: some decisions should be implemented there, and some should not. Our task now is to select, first of all, those services, both in Smart Nation and in Smart City, which will bring the greatest benefit to Azerbaijan in the short and medium-term," summed up Orlov.
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