On May 24, 2024, the next meeting of the Digital Transformation Working Group of AHK Azerbaijan was held at the AHK Azerbaijan office, where the topic of Innovation in public services in the digital age was discussed.

Declaring the meeting open, the Chairman of the Digital Transformation Working Group, Mr Orkhan Guliyev, welcomed the participants and informed the meeting participants about the progress and topic of the meeting. Then, he gave the floor to the guest speaker, Mr Semral Aliyev, Head of the Public Service Design and Innovation department at the State Agency for Public Service and Social Innovations (ASAN Service).

Mr Aliyev, who began his speech with a greeting of participants, noted that ASAN Service has been operating for more than ten years, has a total of 400 services, and the areas of activity are public services, innovations and social projects. Mr Aliyev said that ASAN Service has more than 40,000 applications daily and noted that they provide mobile services to make them more accessible to citizens. In order to simplify services and prevent bureaucratic obstacles, ASAN emphasised the creation of the ASAN Index and the platform itself focused on awareness of State institutions, evaluation of Services, analysis of Evaluation and announcement of Results. Mr Aliyev informed the participants about the creation of the Idea Bank for citizens to send their various ideas to the ASAN Service and that competitions were held in 20 different directions. In addition, he spoke about ASAN Payment, which operates in a single centre for payment, and ASAN Application platforms, which are public participation platforms and provide electronic submission of complaints related to public services, utilities, road and transport problems.

Mr Aliyev also spoke about the ASAN Visa (E-visa), where he informed the participants of the meeting about the possibility and process of obtaining a visa in only three steps (application - payment - E-visa). Mr Aliyev noted that due to the demand for the ASAN model, ASAN Service has shared its experiences in the field of public service provision with Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Indonesia, Uganda and other international partners. He said that ASAN Service has also done a number of things in the application of artificial intelligence; artificial intelligence-based call centres, service quality assessments, data management and forecasting, control and monitoring are provided with artificial intelligence solutions. Mr Aliyev informed us about the establishment of ABAD with the aim of ASAN Service providing support to the family businesses. He emphasised that the main goal here is to ensure the facilitation of branding, marketing and logistics of farmers' and villagers' products. Later, he gave extensive information about INNOLAND, which was created to support start-ups, and Bilim Baku Center, which was created for the participation of students aiming for the future. At the end of the meeting, Mr Aliyev, who spoke about ASAN Radio and the international achievements of ASAN Service, ended his speech and thanked the participants of the meeting.

The meeting concluded with an active exchange of ideas and a Q&A session.