A conference on "Big Data" in public administration was jointly held by the Ministry of Transport, Communications and High Technologies and the consulting firm McKinsey.

The seminar focused on the use of enormous amounts of data in public administration, their management, and their importance in the decision-making process, as well as government agencies' contactless and flexible provision of services to residents.

Elmir Velizadeh, Deputy Minister of Transport, Communications, and High Technologies, gave an opening statement regarding the significance of the event. The Deputy Minister stated that digital growth is one of the most important concerns facing our country in the current period, and that efforts in the field of big data would be expanded in the near future. "In our country, steps are being taken and will be done in the areas of widespread adoption of digital technologies, infrastructure enhancement, including the creation of data centers, and the use of artificial intelligence technologies in data processing and training." In our country, the "Open Data" portal has been operational since 2015. More than 650 open data sets from nine federal organizations are available in 11 categories, and several apps have already been created. "With its capabilities and services, the TIER III level Data Center, which runs under the Ministry, may also contribute to the collecting and processing of vast volumes of data in the country," he said.

Deputy Chairman of the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan's State Agency for Citizen Services and Social Innovations, Jeyhun Salmanov, spoke at the seminar about the relevance of data analytics, the state agency's work in this field, and future goals. He emphasized that since the inception of the “ASAN service”, a strong emphasis has been placed on the necessity of Data-driven decision-making and the development of a data-driven decision-making culture. He emphasized the necessity of such gatherings in solving data analytics concerns.

Then, at the event, Sinan Koksoy, a representative of the consulting firm McKinsey, gave a speech. He discussed the examination of foreign countries' experience and recommendations in the analytical analysis of enormous volumes of data, referred to as Big Data, and its application in management. He also shared details about Advanced Analytics.

At the panel meeting of the seminar, Rashad Azizov, Head of the Ministry of Transport, Communications and High Technologies' Department of Innovation and Digital Development, gave a presentation on "Big Data in Digital Development." R. Azizov discussed "digital governance," "digital payments," "e-commerce," "electronic document management," "electronic signatures in the next generation of ID cards," and other normative papers relating to digital development. He discussed the advantages of the work done in the development of "e-government" and the implementation of governmental decisions in this area. E-government infrastructure and e-signature infrastructure with keys to access e-services, e-payment portal "Government Payment," "Licenses and Permits" portal for entrepreneurs to obtain licenses and permits, and e-visas for foreigners and stateless persons "ASAN visa system has been established for issuance of e-visas for foreigners and stateless persons, in the agricultural sector, an electronic agricultural system has been established, as has an electronic judicial system in the sphere of justice, as well as cadastres and registries of state importance." According to R.Azizov, Azerbaijan rose to 56th place in the e-Government Development Index and 47th place out of 50 nations in the e-Participation Index in the UN e-Government Observation Report for the first time.

If entrepreneurs or government agencies formerly kept information in archives and folders, this information is now converted to digital media, according to Jeyhun Aliyev, Deputy Director of AzInTelecom LLC, and as the amount of data grows, so should the storage capacity of these volumes. In its logical sense, "Big Data" denotes a big volume of data. Not only does storing and analyzing vast volumes of data necessitate a lot of memory, but it also necessitates a robust computational infrastructure. AzCloud cloud services, which are part of the AzInTelecom Data Center, offer such services while also securing users' data according to international standards and providing high-reliability computing.

Ankit Bisht and Borko Handjiski of "McKinsey" spoke on best world practices in public administration and the need of using large volumes of data.

The seminar was followed by a round of interactive conversations.