INFORMATION & COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGIES (ICT) AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT OF THE AZERBAIJAN REPUBLIC

Nowadays, the Republic of Azerbaijan is one of the most developed countries in the Caucasus region. The country’s development is associated with hydrocarbon production; but in recent years, the country’s authorities have taken a course towards the IT sector development. This is an extremely interesting phenomenon, especially considering the low base's effect and the high growth rate of the main indicators which characterize a digital society. Within the article, the authors identify the relationship between the indicators of the digital society development and IT and the growth rate of the country’s economy and then the authors characterize the trends which are characteristic for Azerbaijan’s IT sector. The major challenge of the article is the preparation of the statistics for research, as they are scarce and segmented. There are two main elements of the research novelty: first, the methodology proposed by the authors for assessing the investments' effectiveness in IT by comparing them with the ITU index and, second, the identifying the shortcomings of the IT development system with the use of the digitalization efficiency analysis (from the below). The major contribution of the article is the development of the econometric methods for the estimation of the ICT investments’ effectiveness on the example of the Azerbaijan economy and the proof of the high importance of the sphere for the future of the country economy.

Ҳали таржима қилинмаган