AZE.US
First Vice-President of Azerbaijan Mehriban Aliyeva chaired the first meeting of the country’s Digital Development Council on June 29, outlining artificial intelligence, cybersecurity and digital transformation as key priorities for the coming years.
Speaking at the meeting, Aliyeva said the council was created following President Ilham Aliyev’s February meeting on Azerbaijan’s new digital development strategy. Based on the instructions given at that meeting, an action plan for 2026-2028 has been approved.
The plan includes a roadmap covering digitalization, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity and the development of an innovation ecosystem.
Aliyeva said the council’s main task is to coordinate the work of various state bodies, form a unified approach and ensure that adopted decisions are implemented on time and effectively.
“Our goal is not only to introduce new technologies, but also to give a strong impetus to the country’s economy, form a modern innovation ecosystem, attract local and foreign investment, support local startups and create a more efficient public administration system,” she said.
The First Vice-President stressed that artificial intelligence is no longer a matter of the future, but one of the main drivers of development today. She said AI is also playing an increasingly central role in national security, creating both new opportunities and new risks.
Aliyeva said Azerbaijan must be ready for new challenges, particularly in cybersecurity and information security.
“Our goal is to turn Azerbaijan into one of the leading countries in the region in digital development and artificial intelligence,” she said.
Minister of Digital Development and Transport Rashad Nabiyev briefed Aliyeva on the implementation of the 2026-2028 Action Plan for Accelerating Digital Development. He said the plan covers 58 initiatives in digitalization, artificial intelligence, innovation and cybersecurity.
According to Nabiyev, roadmaps have been prepared with 40 state bodies as part of the digitalization process, with 13 already approved or in the approval stage.
The minister also reported on the creation of the National Data Pool, the migration of state information systems to the government cloud and ongoing work on a new data center.
Nabiyev said the service coverage of the mygov platform has expanded, with the number of users rising from 2.7 million to 3.5 million over the past three months. Several applications have already been integrated into the platform, while services from seven more state applications are expected to become available to citizens by the end of the year.
He also said AI-based solutions are being expanded across mygov and other government institutions, including the launch of a virtual citizen assistant.
On cybersecurity, Nabiyev said work is continuing on the creation of a National Security Operations Center, a National Cyber Incident Response Center, a Digital Investigation Center and a unified national cybersecurity platform to support rapid information exchange between the public and private sectors.
Shahmar Movsumov, assistant to the President and head of the Economic Affairs and Innovative Development Policy Department of the Presidential Administration, briefed the meeting on legislative reforms in the digital sector.
Movsumov said digital transformation is being carried out as one of the main priorities of state policy under the leadership of President Ilham Aliyev. He said the reforms are aimed at forming a modern legal framework and cover legal certainty, a competitive tax environment, innovation financing, research and development incentives, talent attraction, market access and improved cybersecurity regulation.
He described the initiative as one of the most comprehensive and fundamental reform efforts in the post-Soviet space in the field of digital ecosystem development and regulation.
Minister of Science and Education Emin Amrullayev reported on the digitalization of education, including the connection of educational institutions to a unified internet network, the Digital School project, the digitalization of education data, electronic education documents and future plans to digitize the learning process.
Amrullayev also highlighted the Digital Skills and STEAM Azerbaijan projects, which are aimed at developing students’ digital competencies.
The meeting underscored that digital technologies, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity and innovation are becoming central pillars of Azerbaijan’s state policy for the coming years.
AZE.US