Digital Transformation Working Group

On July 5, 2024, at the office of AHK Azerbaijan, at the next meeting of the Digital Transformation Working Group, the topic "COP29 and digitalisation initiatives in the field of environmental protection" was discussed.

Declaring the meeting open, Mr Orkhan Guliyev, Chairman of the Digital Transformation Working Group, informed the meeting participants about the preparation process for COP29, innovations, progress, and the topic of today's meeting and gave the floor to the guest speaker, Mr Rustam Hasanov, Advisor to the Minister of Ecology and Natural Resources.

Mr Hasanov expressed his gratitude for the invitation and noted that he closely follows the chamber's activities. He also noted that such meetings are always productive and can stimulate the solution of current issues. In his speech, he brought the latest updates related to COP29 to the attention of the meeting participants.

In addition, in his speech, he mentioned the implementation of the carbon credit mechanism and noted that this mechanism will be implemented in 2026. He said that before the COP, a pre-COP event will be held in September, during which the ministers will participate. He noted that the prices of hotels for the accommodation of the arriving guests have increased, and in this regard, COP29 will have its own booking website, from which guests can make hotel reservations. More

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. More

The next meeting of AHK Azerbaijan's Digital Transformation Working Group took place on Friday, November 3, 2023, in the "Innovation Space" section located on the 1st floor of the Innovation and Digital Development Agency. The meeting was held under the theme "Enabling Tomorrow, Building It Today".

Declaring the meeting open, the Executive Director of AHK Azerbaijan, Mr Tobias Baumann, welcomed the participants and informed them about the progress of the meeting. Then, he gave the floor to Mr Orkhan Guliyev, Chairman of the Digital Transformation Working Group and Chief Operating Officer of Caspian Innovation Center LLC. Mr Guliyev, in turn, greeted the participants and informed the participants about the innovative society and competitive human capital, which are among our 2030 national priorities, and noted that today's discussions will focus more on innovation. Later, Mr Guliyev gave the floor to Ms Inara Valiyeva, the Chairperson of the Innovation and Digital Development Agency.

Ms Valiyeva, who took part in the event as a speaker, greeted the participants and thanked the guests for their participation in the event. During her speech, Ms Valiyeva introduced the mission and tasks of the Innovation and Digital Development Agency to the participants. She spoke about the establishment of a successful eco-system and its components, and then Ms Valiyeva emphasised the importance of start-ups and the importance of developing this field in Azerbaijan. Ms Valiyeva provided extensive information to the participants about the "Technest" scholarship program, which is a national scholarship program that offers scholarships in the field of information and communication technologies; she also taught the participants the essence of the scholarship program. At the end of the speech, Ms Valiyeva gave detailed answers to the questions addressed by the participants. More

On July 12, 2023, the next meeting of the AHK Azerbaijan Digital Transformation Working Group took place with the Center for Analysis and Coordination of the Fourth Industrial Revolution under the Ministry of Economy. The meeting was attended by around 20 company representatives, and discussions were held regarding the digital economy and artificial intelligence strategies in Azerbaijan in the context of strengthening the public-private dialogue.

Opening the meeting, Orkhan Guliyev, Chairperson of the Digital Transformation Working Group, welcomed the participants, introduced the agenda of the meeting, and further stressed the importance of the field of the digital economy, which is one of the main components of the digital transformation, in terms of developing the public-private sector partnership.

We were joined by Fariz Jafarov, Acting Chief Executive Officer of the Center for Analysis and Coordination of the Fourth Industrial Revolution who gave a presentation on the topic "Role of 4IR Technologies in Digital Economy". In his presentation, Mr Jafarov informed the participants about the general activities of the Center, the work carried out in the direction of socio-economic development strategies, the possible applications and benefits of 4IR technologies and digitalisation, and gave a brief overview of the effects on the future development of the world economy, including the economy of Azerbaijan. More

On 03 March 2023, the first meeting of the Digital Transformation Working Group took place with the participation of around 30 company representatives. The meeting was focused on the main local challenges of innovation in business.

Opening the meeting, Mr Tobias Baumann welcomed the participants, introduced the new Chairperson of the Digital Transformation Working Group, Mr Orkhan Guliyev and wished him a successful year ahead. Taking the floor, Mr Orkhan Guliyev briefly presented himself and then talked about the recent rebranding of the working group to cover more topics in digital transformation and innovation.

We were joined by Mr Farrukh Aliyev, Head of Innovations at PASHA Holding LLC, who shared his experiences in this particular field with the participants. In his presentation, Mr Farrukh Aliyev talked about the general incentives for innovation, barriers to innovation, need for an innovation strategy and went through the global innovation trends and priority directions. The meeting was followed by a lively questions and answers session and discussions with the participation of the member companies. More

On 13 October 2022, the next meeting of the ICT Working Group took place with the participation of around 20 company representatives. The meeting was focused on the current cybersecurity challenges facing businesses in Azerbaijan.

Opening the meeting, Rufat Sadigov, Chairperson of the AHK Azerbaijan ICT Working Group, welcomed the participants and introduced the agenda of the event. He drew attention to the cybersecurity challenges given the current global business growth dynamics, which poses a more significant threat, especially in the banking sector and among the public institutions in Azerbaijan.

We were joined by Fuad Mailov, Managing Director of the Technofusion LLC and Shaig Samadov, Regional Channel Account Manager of Fortinet, Inc., who shared their experiences in this particular field with participants. In his speech, Shaig Samadov talked about the importance of information security for businesses and went through risk management methods and a pyramid for cybersecurity solutions depending on the maturity level of the company.

The meeting was followed by a lively questions and answers session and discussions with the participation of the member companies AHK Azerbaijan. More

On 03 March 2022, the Meeting between the AHK Azerbaijan members and the E-Gov Development Center took place with the participation of more than 40 company representatives.

Opening the meeting, Tobias Baumann welcomed the participants and introduced the honorary guest speaker Fariz Jafarov, Director of the E-Gov Development Center, and thanked him for his close cooperation with the business community. Taking the floor, Rufat Sadigov expressed his gratitude to the professional team of the E-Gov Development Center for their immense contributions to the public during the COVID-19 pandemic.

In his speech, Fariz Jafarov talked about the next steps of the Center planned for 2022-2025, gave information about their vision for the future, the strategic goals of the digital government development plan, and a series of projects implemented by them. This was followed by a question and answers session with the participation of the member companies of AHK Azerbaijan. More

On 14 October 2021, the first in-person meeting of the ICT Working Group this year took place with participation of over 30 company representatives. The meeting was focused on business applications of data analytics and artificial intelligence in Azerbaijan.

Opening the meeting, Rufat Sadigov noted that after a long break he was happy with the return to in-person meetings and further stressed the importance of data analytics to map customer behavior and patterns in daily business activities. We were joined by Altan Atabarut, SEE Digital Transformation & Innovation Lead at SAS.com (Statistical Analysis Software) specially invited from Turkey who shared the best current practices in data analytics with the participants. In his presentation, he also covered AI solutions across major sectors ranging from banking and insurance to production.

The event was interactive and after the presentation, the guest speaker answered questions raised by the participants. More

On 10 June 2021, the next online meeting of the ICT Working Group took place with participation of around 30 company representatives. The meeting was focused on online banking and its regulatory framework in Azerbaijan.

Opening the meeting, Rufat Sadigov emphasised the rapidly evolving digital transformation in the banking sector and further noted that in the near future there would be no need for bank cards and branch offices. The session was moderated by Rufat Sadigov and we were joined by Afgan Bakhishov, Chief Legal & Compliance Officer at Unibank Commercial Bank OJSC who shared current trends in the digital banking sector and his experiences in this particular field with the participants.

The online event was interactive and after the presentation, the guest speaker answered questions raised by the participants.

On 10 February 2021, the next online meeting of the ICT Working Group took place with participation of more than 20 company representatives. The meeting was focused was focused on digital transformation for companies in Azerbaijan, especially for SMEs.

Opening the meeting, Rufat Sadigov noted how the COVID-19 pandemic had accelerated digital adoption in business generally and how it had affected SMEs. The session was moderated by Rufat Sadigov and we were joined by two guest speakers - by Orkhan Guliyev, Business Operations Lead and Rauf Mahmudlu, Network Services and Information Security Lead at Caspian Innovation Center who shared their experiences in this particular field with the participants.

The online event was interactive and after the presentations, the guest speakers answered questions raised by the participants. More