Azerbaijan talks pursuance of pilot projects with local banks under open gov’t initiative

BAKU: The Azerbaijan Innovation and Digital Development Agency under the Ministry of Digital Development and Transport is implementing pilot projects with local banks as a part of the ‘Open Government’ initiative, Deputy Chairman of the Agency Rashad Khaligov said during a QandA session at the updated “mygov” e-government platform presentation in Baku today, Trend reports. “Over 40 different certificates and documents are available to citizens through the platform to date. The primary focus is on services that are most frequently requested by the public, as well as the recognition of the digital status of these documents. Specifically, one of our key areas of work is the recognition of the digital legal status of documents such as driver’s licenses. However, in practice, we find that citizens often face difficulties when submitting other documents. For example, the State Road Police can easily verify a driver’s identity and vehicle using tablets, making the driver’s license a highly sought-after document. Yet, we have noticed that other documents require more attention and encounter more difficulties in their use. Therefore, we have shifted our focus to improving services in other areas first,” Khaligov explained. According to him, one of the agency’s main initiatives this year is the ‘Open Government’ project. “In this framework, we are already implementing a pilot project with several banks. This project aims to provide the private sector access to data and services from government information systems with citizens’ consent. This approach is widely practiced internationally, particularly among mobile operators and banks. We are conducting a pilot project with one of the Azerbaijani banks, which provides services based on digital consent from citizens. This experience shows that the private sector is often more flexible and efficient in simplifying government services, as commercial interests drive it to offer services in a more convenient and user-friendly manner. Thus, for the development of digital sol utions, it’s crucial for the services to be provided by private companies as well,” he added. Source: Trend News Agency