Activity directions of Azerbaijan & Russia within Smart City Concept revealed

The smart village and smart city concept is being actively introduced in the liberated Azerbaijani territories. The smart city concept has great potential in terms of the implementation of joint initiatives by companies from Azerbaijan and Russia, where small and medium-sized businesses can also be involved, Chairman of the Board of the Azerbaijan Small and Medium Business Development Agency (KOBIA) Orkhan Mammadov said during the event of the business mission of Russian companies in the field of urban infrastructure development - Smart City in Baku, Report informs.

“The effectiveness of this approach can result in an increase in the SME (small and medium-sized enterprises) sector in supply chains, the number of joint ventures created and the frequency of implementation of innovative solutions. It should also be noted that public-private partnership in this area can become a very fertile platform that will ensure both the timely implementation of projects and their financing.

"Our agency doesn’t stay aside from these trends and we are ready to make every effort to ensure the involvement of SMEs in the implementation of potential smart city projects,” Mammadov said.

He noted that the potential for cooperation between Azerbaijani and Russian companies is developing in all directions. In particular, he highlighted cooperation with the Azerbaijani representative office of the Russian Export Center, with Roseximbank JSC, as well as the Azerbaijan-Russia and Russia-Azerbaijan business councils. As part of cooperation with SME Corporation JSC, seminars were held for SMEs on public procurement, specific round tables with the participation of companies from both sides.

“In order to identify similar interests for SMEs in Azerbaijan and Russia, the Agency is also actively involved in various specialized events held in the Russian Federation. In June of this year, we took part in the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, within which we met with our colleagues and potential new partners.

In July 2021, with the support of the Azerbaijani Economy Ministry and our agency, at the Russia Halal Expo 2021 exhibition held as part of KazanSummit, specialized Azerbaijani products were demonstrated at a separate stand,” the head of KOBIA said.