European Commission to finance IT-projects of Azerbaijan

He said that the document, which was previously considered by the Azerbaijani side, was approved in mid-year in Luxembourg at a meeting of representatives of ministries of the participating countries of the EU "Eastern Partnership”, responsible for the digital economy.

"The main projects to be funded in 2016-2017 under the HDM Initiative will be determines until the end of 2015,” Babayev said. "Azerbaijan has prepared six project proposals in accordance with HDM Initiative, which are presented to the European Commission for funding.”

The projects prepared in six areas of HDM Initiative - e-customs, e-commerce, e-business, e-security, etc., will be further implemented in Azerbaijan.

Concepts of project proposals will be presented to the international commission until September 15, according to Babayev. The selection of projects will be completed before October 15.

The International Commission, which is also composed of experts from Azerbaijan, will determine the priorities that will be funded by the European Commission in the next two years. The final decision on the project financing is expected in December 2015.

HDM Initiative envisages the creation of a unified digital space, the digital market at a broad level, so that entrepreneurs could have a single numeric field for the trading and settlements.

HDM Initiative consists of 14 important aspects, including the creation of legislation, customs, software for trading and so on.

HDM Initiative includes countries of the Eastern Partnership (Belarus, Moldova, Ukraine, Azerbaijan, Georgia and Armenia).

Eastern Partnership is a project of EU, whose main objective is the development of integration ties between the EU and six former Soviet countries: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine.

Relations between Azerbaijan and EU are based on the Partnership and Cooperation Agreement signed in 1996 in Luxemburg and entered into force in 1999.

Azerbaijan is also included in the EU Eastern Partnership program adopted on the initiative of Poland and Sweden and approved at the EU summit in Brussels in 2008. The program's aim is the rapprochement between the EU and Azerbaijan, Ukraine, Armenia, Moldova, Georgia and Belarus. It envisages a significant increase of the level of political interaction and large integration of former Soviet republics into the EU economy, increasing the volume of financial aid to them and strengthening energy security.