South Korea awards USD2 million grant to develop innovation in Azerbaijan

On 20 July, the Ministry of Digital Development and Transport (MDDT) of the Republic of Azerbaijan and the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) of the Republic of South Korea signed a grant agreement to support the construction of innovation policy in Azerbaijan.

The agreement was signed by Minister of Digital Development and Transport of the Republic of Azerbaijan Rashad Nabiyev and Country Director of the KOICA Azerbaijan Office Moon Jong Hyun.

The goal of the USD2 million grant project is to prepare a strategic roadmap for innovation, in order to improve the effectiveness of innovation policy in Azerbaijan.

The project envisages the provision of proposals and recommendations to improve institutional capacity and develop an innovation and startup ecosystem through conducting research on other related issues by a KOICA expert team with the participation of the Innovation and Digital Development Agency, which is under the ministry.

The project, which will be implemented with the financial and technical support of KOICA, is planned to be continued until 2024 and mutual business visits will be made during this period.

It should be noted that the project will make its contribution to investing in the relevant field in Azerbaijan and applying innovations in various sectors of the economy by taking advantage of the experience of South Korea, which is one of the leading countries in the development of the innovation ecosystem.