One of the world’s most renowned news agencies, Euronews, has presented Azerbaijan as a leading country implementing X-Road technology. A report highlighting the capabilities of this technology and the advanced countries that use it was broadcast several times throughout the day and was also published on the channel’s official website.
It is noted that Azerbaijan became the second country after Estonia to adopt X-Road technology. In Azerbaijan, both the e-government platform and the Digital Trade Hub have been built on the basis of X-Road. After Azerbaijan, Finland and Ukraine also began implementing this technology. According to Euronews, Shinzo Abe, who is currently on a visit to Eastern Europe, has shown strong interest in X-Road technology.
Commenting on the report, the Manager of Azerbaijan’s Digital Trade Hub, Nicat Asadli, stated that as a result of the successful innovation policy pursued by President Ilham Aliyev, the first Digital Trade Hub in Europe and the second in the world has been established in Azerbaijan. He emphasized that the Digital Trade Hub based on X-Road technology was created even earlier than the hub launched in Malaysia. According to him, it is a positive but not coincidental development that countries such as Finland, Ukraine, and even Japan—considered one of the most innovative countries in the world—are taking Azerbaijan as a model.
Asadli also noted that Azerbaijan is steadily advancing in the fields of information technology and telecommunications. As a concrete example, he pointed out that electronic residency will soon be offered in Azerbaijan for the first time after Estonia. Through the Digital Trade Hub, non-residents will be able to obtain ASAN and electronic signatures, register companies, make payments, and access other electronic services. This unique service will enable non-residents to conduct business activities in Azerbaijan with ease.
According to Nicat Asadli, the Strategic Road Map for the Development of Telecommunications and Information Technologies in the Republic of Azerbaijan, approved by a presidential decree dated December 6, 2016, sets clear tasks for developing and improving ICT infrastructure and increasing the country’s ICT industry potential in order to digitize the economy. He stressed that Euronews highlighting Azerbaijan among innovative countries is a direct result of the consistent and systematic economic reforms carried out under President Ilham Aliyev’s leadership.
It should be noted that X-Road was first implemented by Estonia, which is recognized as having one of the world’s most advanced digital societies. By using a single data exchange layer and diversified secure connections, X-Road offers lower costs and enhanced security. In Estonia, the X-Road data management platform is used by around 52,000 organizations and processes approximately 500 million requests annually.