On April 19, the Republican Innovation Competition was held at the Baku Business Center to support the implementation of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), as well as the implementation of the "Azerbaijan 2020: Vision of the Future" Development Concept, the National Economy and Strategic Roadmaps for the main sectors of the economy, and the Competition in this direction the next meeting of the Evaluation Commission was held in order to discuss issues related to its organization. The Republican Innovation Competition, which has been held for the 3rd year, is organized by the Ministry of Transport, Communications and High Technologies, the Ministry of Culture, the State Agency for Citizen Services and Social Innovations under the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan, the National Academy of Sciences, the Azerbaijan branch of Ernest & Younge and the United Nations Development It is organized by the Ministry of Economy with the support of the Azerbaijan representation of the program.

The Chairman of the Evaluation Commission, Deputy Minister of Economy, Sevinc Hasanova, said that systematic measures are being implemented in the direction of ensuring innovative development and building an innovation ecosystem in the country, and that the draft of the Innovation Strategy of the Republic of Azerbaijan is being prepared in order to increase efficiency and ensure coordination in the field of innovative development, and under the Ministry of Transport, Communications and High Technologies He pointed out that the Innovation Agency was created. It was noted that the issuance of the "Startup" certificate by the Small and Medium Business Development Agency under the Ministry of Economy to the startups that meet the criteria determined according to the changes made to the Tax Code is a step taken in this direction.

The deputy minister emphasized that the innovation competitions organized with the aim of supporting the implementation of the goals of the UN Sustainable Development Agenda, encouraging innovations, and the implementation of the "Azerbaijan 2020: Vision of the Future" Development Concept and Strategic Roadmaps are the first event held in this format in the field of innovation in our country.

At the meeting, information was provided about the criteria of projects to be accepted for the 3rd Republican Innovation Competition, project support and other incentive measures. It was announced that 2 teams that will be announced as winners for 2019 within the framework of the competition will be involved in the "STARTUP Day" program to be held in Estonia, and 3 more selected projects will be involved in a 4-month intensive program. In addition, 1 or 2 distinguished projects will be entitled to participate in the "Joint German-Azerbaijani Program on improving the qualifications of managers in the business community of Azerbaijan". At the same time, one of the winners of the competition will receive an invitation to the "Fast Track Azerbaijan" program of the Innovation Agency under the Ministry of Transport, Communications and High Technologies and the "Cloud4Start" award of the Data Center (3000 manats).

Innovative project directions to be submitted to the 3rd competition were approved at the meeting.

The 3rd Republican Innovation Competition is expected to be announced in May of this year. Acceptance of projects for the Republican Innovation Competition will continue until July.