10th Anniversary Azerbaijan Exhibition "BakuTel" took place in Baku (Azerbaijan).

10th Anniversary Azerbaijan Exhibition "BakuTel" took place in Baku (Azerbaijan), at the Sport and Concert Complex named after Heydar Aliyev on September 29-October 2, 2004. There have participate 31 foreign companies at the exhibition: "Alcatel" (France), "Cisco Systems" (USA), IBM (USA), "Wincor Nixdorf" (Germany), "Penkiu kontinentu bankines technologijos" (BS/2, Lithuania) and others. Wide advertisment campaign, including invitations' distribution through Azerbaijan, Iran, Georgia, Turkey and Central Asia, advertisment on TV and radio, in leading newspapers and specialized publications of Azerbaijan, Georgia, Russia, Turkey and Iran. Market and Economy of Azerbaijan

Today Azerbaijan, having 86.6 thousand sq.km area and more than 8 million population, is one of the prioritized country in CIS for investors owing to its natural resources, that are firstly oil and gas, its geopolitical location, existence of strong legal base and significant intellectual resources.

The scale of foreign investments into the economy of Azerbaijan will excess 17 bln. USD within next 3 years. According to the 3-year Governmental Investment Program, prepared by the Ministry of Economic Development of Azerbaijan, 300 investment projects with total investment volume of 3 bln. USD will be realized in Azerbaijan.

The latest events development in the energy sector of the country, particularly, Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline project sanctioned in September 2003, and Phase 2 in development of Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli oil fields will lead to the creation of new niches for foreign companies, with total market range of 10 bln. USD to the year 2008 in such industrial sectors as telecommunication, construction, agriculture, health.

Azerbaijan is a leader among the CIS countries in number of mobile phones per 1000 inhabitants; this number is equal to 53,21 in the country, (in Russia – 22.47, in Georgia – 18.97, in Ukraine - 16,8, in Armenia – 2.14). Nowadays Azerbaijan counts more than 1M subscribers of the mobile telephones network.

According to the report of ITC, it is expected that telecommunication market will increase up to 200 mln. USD by the year 2005, out of which 150 mln. USD will be spent for the infrastructure of public networks and 50 mln. USD for equipment of private networks. The total market of ICT in Azerbaijan by the year 2005 will make up about 350 mln USD (183.5 mln USD as of 2001).

According to the National Strategy of ICT the number of PC users with the connection to the Internet will reach 1 mln by the year 2011 (as of today there are about 300 thousand active Internet users). Official Support BakuTel 2004 exhibition is fully supported by ITU, the Ministry of Communications, PU “Aztelekom”, Project of National Strategy of Development of ICT in Azerbaijan, Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Azerbaijan. Banking Solutions JSC “Penki kontinentai” secondary company “Penkiø kontinentø bankinës technologijos“ or BS/2 is the most successfully working company in the field of banking technologies in Lithuania. During last six years BS/2 is producing the banking self-service systems, which are helpful for financial institutions and banks to adapt to the market’s singularity. BS/2, the biggest foreign and Lithuanian banks closely cooperate between themselves. The ”Wincor Nixdorf“ banking self-service equipment is installed in Vilnius banks – “Hansabankas”, “Nord/LB Lietuva”, “Snoras”, “Parex”, “Sampo”. “Penkiø kontinentø bankinës technologijos“/BS/2 – a member of the directorate of ATMIA from June – had sponsored the ATMIA conference 2004 handled on 9-10 of September in Vilnius. BS/2 has presented advanced solution for self-service branch concept as well as a real one monitored by videosecurity system “ATMeye“. At present the Service department has branch offices in Latvia and Azerbaijan – “Penki kontinentai Ryga“ and “Penki kontinentai Baku“, and provides service support in 12 world countries. BS/2 represents “VISA International“ interests at Central and Eastern Europe, Middle Asia and Africa.