Azerbaijan s development at thebeginning of the XXI century is characterized by the greatsuccess story of its petroleum industry, which has propelledAzerbaijan to the level of the most rapidly growingeconomies in Europe and Central Asia. While oil and gasreserves are finite and their extraction and transportationis largely impacted by exogenous factors the Government ofAzerbaijan has recently focused its policies on economicdiversification, which, among others, prioritizes publicinvestment spending to boost the information andcommunication technologies (ICT) sector. It is envisagedthat by 2020 Azerbaijan s ICT sector should become one ofthe main contributors to the non-oil GDP and shouldfacilitate country s transition into the knowledge economy.Telecommunications liberalization, modernization andextension of the national telecom infrastructure,implementation of e-government, and other sector-specificpolicies have helped stimulate the growth of the local ICTsector which since 2005 has been expanding at an averagerate of 25-30 percent. The telecom industry, especially itsmobile segment, has fueled the overall ICT sectordevelopment. The number of Internet users has soared fromonly 17 percent in 2008 to 73 percent in 2013. By 2014, thewireless penetration per capita grew at over 100 percent,around one third of the population gained mobile broadbandaccess, and 30 percent of Azerbaijan s households subscribedto fixed (wired) broadband Internet.
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