Azernews.Az

By Nigar Orujova

State Fund for Development of Information Technology is preparing some mechanisms to protect the ideas of the startup projects.

The news was announced by Deputy Director of the Fund Azer Bayramov last week.

The main issue is the legal regulation of the problem, which is now disturbing the entrepreneurs.

"The issue is quite relevant and important for industries such as information technology. Therefore, we are going to start working in this direction in the future," he said.

Bayramov said many people are initially thinking about protecting their ideas at the early stages of their formation. In practice, ​​protecting the idea is in the hands of its owner who can keep it a secret; this idea will be revealed only after its implementation. The issue can be resolved with a non-disclosure agreement in case it's a team work.

State Fund is also preparing to provide advisory services to young entrepreneurs on the materialization of their ideas. Courses and workshops on preparing business plans is planned to be organized for the young participants of the start-up projects.

"If the startup refers to the software market, but its author has no idea about marketing in this area, we can advice him. Our main goal is to have the business started," Bayramov said.

Startup contest

The Fund has already announced the first competition of start-up projects for grant funding provision. Documents for participation in the competition will be accepted from April 2 to May 2, 2014.

The projects submitted for the contest will be assessed by an expert group based on the previously approved criteria of the Supervisory Board of the Fund.

The evaluation of the projects will be conducted in accordance with 12 criteria, and projects that score eight points or more will be submitted to the Board for further funding.

The issuance of small, medium, and large loans and grants from the State Fund is envisaged for financing the project.

Every Azerbaijani citizen can avail himself of the advantages of the ICT Fund's financing. The maximum grant available is 300,000 manats (over $382,000), provided for a period of 36 months.

Small grants range from 10,000 to 50,000 manats (from $12,700 to $63,700) with a term of three years, medium grants can be from 50,000 to 500,000 manats (from $63,700 to $637,000) with a term of five years, and large grants can be from 200,000 to 300,000 manats (from $250,000 to $380,000) with a term of 10 years.

The loans' interest rates will not exceed five percent per annum, and the maximum loan amount may reach five million manats (over $6 million).