Azerbaijani specialists continue to study international practice in e-governance and digitalization and exchange experience with specialists of foreign countries in accordance with the state policy implemented towards the development of electronic government and electronic services. 

Thus, within the framework of ICT cooperation with Austria, a delegation from the Data Processing Center of the Ministry of Transport, Communications and High Technologies (MTCHT) was on a visit to Vienna, the capital of Austria.  

During the visit, the Azerbaijani delegation held meetings with the heads of the Austrian Federal Chancellery, Organization “Digital Austria”, Austrian Federal Computing Center, Austrian Institute of Technology and other relevant organizations. The main topic of discussions at the meetings was the possibility of introducing m-government (mobile government) and m-signature (mobile signature), their security and mutual recognition.

It was noted that new generation ID cards which will be issued to Azerbaijani citizens from 2018 necessitate wide introduction of m-government and m-signature. In this regard, it was decided to accelerate the introduction of both electronic government components - mobile government and mobile signature in the context of cooperation with Austria.

During the visit, the sides discussed the issue of exchange of experience in the spheres of e-government, evaluation of electronic services, electronic identity card and open government data. During the discussions, Austrian specialists highly appreciated the practice of using tokens as carriers of electronic signature introduced by the Ministry and simplification of rules for their use.  

It is to be noted that the visit took place in the framework of the joint project of the Ministry of Transport, Communications and High Technologies and the European Union “Strengthening Development of Electronic Services in the Republic of Azerbaijan”. 

It should also be emphasized that Azerbaijan and Austria have been cooperating in all spheres for over 25 years. Economic relations between the two countries are regulated by Mixed Commission for Economic, Agricultural, Industrial, Technical and Technological Cooperation. From the Azerbaijani side the Chairman of the Commission is Minister of Transport, Communications and High Technologies Ramin Guluzade. To date, more than 40 bilateral agreements have been signed between the governments of Azerbaijan and Austria.