Bakutel 2017, the 23rd Azerbaijan International Telecommunications and Information Technologies Exhibition and Conference opened at the Baku Expo Center. Bakutel is not just an exhibition of technical achievements which are growing rapidly in an extremely short period of time, but also a unique platform where both specialists and professionals from various ICT fields can meet. The exhibition serves as a venue for ordinary users who can choose the most effective tools for data exchanging and processing.

As the main arena for presenting IT products and services, Bakutel has acquired status as the main business platform where new contacts and businesses are created. It has already become a tradition that the President of the Azerbaijan Republic Ilham Aliyev is visiting the Bakutel exhibition. The Ministry of Transport, Communications and High Technologies of the Republic of Azerbaijan has provided invaluable support to Bakutel. The Exhibition is also supported by Azerbaijan Fund for the Promotion of Export and Investment (AZPROMO) and the National Confederation of the Entrepreneurs (Employers) Organizations of Azerbaijan Republic (AEC). The show is also respected globally and is supported by institutions, such as the International Telecommunication Union, the Regional Commonwealth in the field of Communications (RCC). The organiser of the exhibition is Caspian Event Organisers (CEO).

This year's exhibition brought together 192 companies from 20 countries, such as the Azerbaijan, China, Finland, France, the Netherlands, Sweden, Turkey, USA, UAE and others. Among the event's participants are leading ICT companies of Azerbaijan, mobile operators, telecom operators, Internet providers, system integrators, distributors of well-known brands and radio and television broadcasting companies. 40% of this year's participants are regular exhibitors of Bakutel. Azercell, which has been participating at the exhibition for more than 20 years, is the general sponsor of Bakutel. The debutants of this year make up 30% of the total number of exhibitors. Bakutel 2017 will also welcome a number of new companies such as BMC Software, Hikvision, Nexus Telecom, Qmatic, etc.

The active participation of national pavilions organized with the support of the Ministry of Transport, Communications and High Technologies of the Republic of Azerbaijan, has already become a tradition at Bakutel. This year, 10 countries - Canada, Croatia, France, Iran, Italy, Russia, Slovenia, Turkey, the UAE and for the 1st time Georgia will present at their stands leading companies from their respective countries and innovative projects not only for Azerbaijan, but for the entire Caspian region, in addition to presenting various products and ICT services.

Leading Azerbaijani state ICT structures are represented on a single national stand, organised by the Ministry of Transport, Communications and High Technologies of the Republic of Azerbaijan. New developmental projects in the fields of communication, high technologies, mail projects, a nanotechnology, E-government, the infrastructure of "electronic signature", and cloud services Data Center and some startup are presented at the stand.

One of the traditions of Bakutel is the opportunity for young specialists to speak about their inventions, programmes and services as part of the largest ICT event in Azerbaijan and the region. The startups are supported by the Ministry of Transport, Communications and High Technologies of the Republic of Azerbaijan. Participation in Bakutel along with industry leaders and government bodies provides a unique opportunity to present startup projects to public and private investors. This year the exhibition will demonstrate 19 developments which, among all, include Spinal, a standalone device and mobile application that helps to improve your posture; Tabletka.az, an application which allows you to easily find the right medicine in local pharmacies of Azerbaijan at any given time; VeloKuryer, the first and only environmentally friendly courier company in Azerbaijan; Wand, a smartpen with temporary ink, which sends any sketch drawn by hand to smartphones; and developments of the IRS Gizgi team who works on the production of national comics, toys, animations and videos in a patriotic spirit.

Over the four days, the exhibition will present the next generation of IT solutions, including national broadband Internet, 4G-5G mobile technologies, as well as the fibre-optic and cloud computing services. Many international and local projects in the field of ICT will be reflected at the exhibition, in which Azerbaijan takes a direct part. One of the trends of this year's exhibition is the increase in the sector "Satellite communication systems and space technologies", in which Azercosmos, Airbus (The Netherlands), Turksat (Turkey), Thales Alenia Space (Italy) take part.

Also, as part of the business program planned by the organisers of the Bakutel 2017 exhibition, an ICT conference will be held under the theme of "New opportunities in a connected world" and will include speeches and presentations on the products, services and projects of the leading participating companies such as Agile, Comfort International, Elcore Group, Microsoft Azerbaijan, Huawei, Bestcomp Group, Nokia, Softline and SMART Business.

Within the framework of Bakutel 2017, B2B meetings will be held to provide the exhibitors and professional visitors with an opportunity to hold bilateral meetings.

AZERTAC