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On June 10th, 2021, Europe’s largest international conference on digital trust and security services – the European Forum on Electronic Signature and Trust Services (EFPE) – took place. EFPE is dedicated to electronic trust services, including electronic signature and PKI, as well as electronic identification and digital security. For two decades, EFPE has brought together experts and professionals in law, technology and practice in the application of electronic trust services.

This year, the theme of the EFPE was “e-identification and trust services as the future of the digital economy”. The event was held online, with over 700 participating experts from all over the world. Well-known representatives from private companies and public organizations, supporting e-transformation around the world, reflected on how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected the development of paperless services.

The speakers of the EFPE 2021 included representatives from renowned international companies and organizations, such as the European Commission, ISO International Organization for Standardization (USA), ETSI European Telecommunications Standards Institute, Samsung Electronics (Poland), Cosmos Corporation (Japan), Asseco Data Systems, Federal Office for Information Security (BSI) (Germany) and many others.

The founder and CEO of B.EST Solutions, Mrs. Jana Krimpe provided a comprehensive presentation on “Trusted Services connecting countries: e-ID the base for cross-border and e-Trade and digital transformation”. Mrs. Krimpe presented the achievements of Azerbaijan in digital transformation, the provision of trusted services and Mobile ID - “Asan Imza”, the Digital Trade Hub of Azerbaijan (DTH), and cross-border schemas for e-Trade. She shared that the implementation of the innovative “Asan Imza” technology in Azerbaijan has been added to the best practices of numerous reports of international organizations as a tool to ensure accessibility, inclusivity, and the transparency of service delivery to the population. “Asan Imza” service users have access to more than 1000 electronic services provided by the public and private sectors.

She also gave an overview of the DTH – a Public-Private Partnership Consortium between the Center for Analysis of Economic Reforms and Communications, PASHA Bank, B.EST Solutions and AzerTelecom. DTH represents a hub, where the government and private sector jointly create an advantageous business environment for digital nomads, freelancers, and entrepreneurs. Mrs. Krimpe stressed the impact of the DTH project both in the region and around the world. The panelist noted that the further development of DTH will strengthen the recovery of the country during the post-COVID period with the use of digital technologies in the social, economic, and financial sectors. Mrs. Krimpe also emphasized the value of the m-Residency program – the first Mobile Residency program in the world. This enables entrepreneurs to run a location independent company in Azerbaijan and benefit from its major electronic services.
Additionally, Mrs. Krimpe introduced Azerbaijan’s digital initiatives in the panel discussion: “Are the e-Identification and trust services the future of the digital economy?”, moderated by Slawomir Górniak – Senior Cybersecurity Expert, ENISA. The panelists discussed the perspective of cross-border mutual recognition schemas between EU and third countries, new eIDAS, European Digital Identity Wallets, new concept of electronic identification schemes, electronic ledgers for legal certainty, additional security of personal data, certification under the European Cybersecurity Act.

Mrs. Krimpe provided an analysis of the current situation in Azerbaijan with existing trusted services and described different cross-border models for the mutual recognition of e-Signatures. Presented activities related to the Framework Agreement on Facilitation of Cross-border Paperless Trade in Asia and the Pacific under the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP). The Agreement promotes the establishment of cross-border mutual recognition mechanisms for trade-related data and documents in electronic form among members as well as allows members to conclude bilateral and multilateral mutual recognition arrangements for the implementation of the recognition.

The detailed information about the conference can be found here.

“Asan Imza” mobile electronic signature users can now obtain a COVID passport on the official website of the State Agency of Mandatory Health Insurance and on “MyGov” portal.

On May 25th, 2021, the State Agency of Mandatory Health Insurance made a statement regarding the obtainment of COVID passports. There are two types of COVID passports: “COVID-19 Vaccine Certificate” and “COVID-19 Immunity Certificate”. A "Vaccine Certificate" is issued to individuals who have been vaccinated with two doses against the disease, and "Immunity Certificate" is issued to the individuals who who were infected and have recovered.

In order to obtain these certificates on the official website of the State Agency of Mandatory Health Insurance, one needs to open “Şəxsi Kabinetə giriş (enter personal account)” subsection under the E-xidmətlər section (https://kabinet.its.gov.az/az/index). This section is also integrated into the “MyGov” portal.

The user has to enter the “ASAN Login” system by using “Asan Imza” mobile electronic signature and select the “Digər xidmətlər (Other services)” section in the opening window.

When selecting the “Digər xidmətlər” section, the screen displays the following options: “COVID-19 Vaccine Certificate” or “COVID-19 Immunity Certificate”. If a citizen has been vaccinated, s/he needs to select "COVID-19 Vaccine Certificate". An individual, that was infected and has recovered needs to select the "COVID-19 Immunity Certificate".

The obtained COVID passport can be downloaded in electronic format, and/or received in a printed version. Authenticity verification of the COVID passport is possible by using the “QR Code” from the document.

Additionally, citizens may obtain a COVID passport through the “E-Təbib” mobile application.

Importantly, when using an active number with “Asan Imza” service, one can receive important messages from government agencies and other e-service providers directly to the given number. Accordingly, it is strongly recommended to obtain the “Asan Imza” service on an active SIM-card, and there is no need to acquire a new number.

More than 1000 electronic services offered by public and private organizations are available with the “Asan Imza” mobile electronic signature. With a mobile identity, one may access vital electronic services, such as filling electronic tax returns; online credit; declaring goods and vehicles at customs; provision of notifications on labor contract to workers; application for affordable housing on preferential terms; opening bank accounts remotely; online issuance of tender guarantee; limitless transactions and internet and mobile banking.

B.EST Solutions – an Estonian company delivering trusted e-governance solutions in emerging states around the world – has once again proven the transferability of Estonia’s digital success. Recently, the company helped develop and launch the m-Residency program in Azerbaijan – the first counterpart to Estonia’s e-residency. We are delighted to share the stakeholders’ overview of the future prospects of the program.

Physical distance can be a debilitating challenge for businesses looking to leverage the potential of an increasingly connected world. Geopolitical complications, ranging from trade wars to economic sanctions, often force companies to move from one country to another as well as reinvest and restart their operations. Business units aiming to optimise costs and increase profit thereby face a complex reality in the current global climate.

The m-Residency program, introduced in Azerbaijan by the initiative of President Ilham Aliyev, provides insurance against these difficulties.

Introducing m-Residency

m-Residency is a cutting-edge and pioneering form of doing business. Offered in only two countries in the world – Estonia and now Azerbaijan – the program provides the opportunity to establish and run a border- less business without major risk or hassle.

The m-Residency program provides virtual government-verified identification in Azerbaijan. m-Residents receive a specially issued Asan Imza (Mobile ID) SIM card for secure authentication and electronic signatures. With this, it is possible to start official activities in the country and use any banking service. Although international applications currently come with limitations, the m-Residency program is growing rapidly.

What benefits does the m-Residency program provide? And what are the program’s future prospects? Access the PDF of the full article via this link to find out more.

Over the past year, experts from B.EST Solutions Estonia – a fast growing Estonian IT company and partner in building e-solutions all over the world – have worked with the World Economic Forum and 100+ organisations to create a toolkit for the responsible deployment of blockchain in supply chains.

Contributing experts Jana Krimpe, Kateryna Isirova and Oleksandr Potii hope that it will help organisations embed best practices and avoid costly mistakes from the outset of their deployments through insights from real-life deployments and interactive tools such as checklists and spreadsheets.

Read more...

Baku, 7 May 2020

Over the past year, B.EST Solutions Company - a national operator of Asan Imza, and a partner of the Digital Trade Hub of Azerbaijan worked with the World Economic Forum and 100+ organizations to create a toolkit for the responsible deployment of blockchain in supply chains. The toolkit was released to help organizations embed best practices and avoid costly mistakes from the outset of their deployments through insights from real-life deployments and interactive tools such as checklists and spreadsheets.

COVID-19 has put a spotlight on existing challenges and gaps in global supply chains. To help organizations as they look forward to the future, the World Economic Forum has accelerated the release of its toolkit: "Redesigning Trust: Blockchain Deployment Toolkit, Supply Chain Focus." The toolkit is now available on the website: http://wef.ch/blockchain-toolkit.

The toolkit was created by the World Economic Forum with the Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution Network Fellows from Hitachi, Deloitte and Saudi Aramco. Among the many others who contributed to its development, in over 50 countries, were the Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution UAE, the Port of Los Angeles, Latham & Watkins, Cardiff Business School, University of Berkeley, B.EST Solutions Company, Tech Mahindra, Maersk Angola, World Bank, Inter-American Development Bank, and the World Food Program and many others.

"And you might ask, what's the benefit of digitalising the supply chain. Simple. A country that can't have or lacks seamless e-trade capabilities - can't have strong economic ties, because having an economic relationship is a form of trading itself. This toolkit will help everyone to understand more about digital identity and to make it accessible as possible" – said Jana Krimpe – the contributor to this toolkit, Co-Chair of Global Alliance for National Mobile Identities, Founder and CEO of B.EST Solutions Company. Mrs. Krimpe also mentioned- “Digital Trade Hub of Azerbaijan is one of the world-wide solutions based on the Public-Private Partnership will definitely benefit from this toolkit and some recommendations from toolkit have been implemented already”.

"...There are many lessons to learn from the current pandemic and this toolkit is a starting point for improving long-term pandemic preparedness and accelerating an economic recovery led by public-private cooperation”- said Nadia Hewett, Blockchain and Digital Currency Project Lead, World Economic Forum USA.
The toolkit addresses the importance of creation and development of digital services in all crucial sectors as well as digitalization of existing services. It is necessary to operate digital services both internally and externally to expand trade competitiveness. Full contributor and project community list available on the website: https://widgets.weforum.org/blockchain-toolkit/contributors

#BlockchainToolkit #blockchain #supplychain #COVID19 #COVID
#DigitalTransformation #ResponsibleBusiness #Innovation #GlobalTrade

About «Asan Imza»:

Due to the mobility solution and easiness to use, Mobile Identity - «Asan Imza» is gaining popularity among citizens and business, and is the key component of m-Government. At the moment more than 1000 public and private electronic services use «Asan Imza» in their systems. «Asan Imza» has been integrated with the call-centers of various governmental and private organizations, it is used for submitting the electronic customs declarations, declaration of goods and vehicles in customs service, registration of labor agreement notifications, opening bank-accounts remotely, on-line application to the educational institutions, etc.

Read more at: www.asanimza.az

About the Consortium of the Digital Trade Hub (DTH) of Azerbaijan:

The Consortium of the Digital Trade Hub of Azerbaijan is a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) that was established to develop the digital infrastructure and platform for cross-border e-Trade in Azerbaijan and strengthen the position of the country as the Digital Hub in a regional and global scale. An agreement for the establishment of the Consortium was electronically signed with Asan Imza between the PASHA Bank, B.EST Solutions and AzerTelecom companies representing the private sector and the Center for Analysis of Economic Reforms and Communications of Azerbaijan Republic representing the public sector at the 3rd Digital Trade Forum titled “Digitalization of the Silk Road” on October 9, 2019, in Baku. The Consortium aims to develop the infrastructure for cross-border e-services, contribute an application of advanced digital services and infrastructure in the Azerbaijan Republic and support the digital transformation of the country. The Consortium provides an unprecedented opportunity to connect Azerbaijan to the global markets and promote Azerbaijan as a new Digital Hub between Europe and Asia.

Read more at: https://www.dth.az

About «B.EST Solutions» Company:
The digital solutions of company have been recognized by the worldwide organizations such as United Nations, Google, Financial Times, EU, OECD, U.S State Department, and the National Institute of Standards and Technology. Our customers include multinationals, major banks, mobile network operators, insurance companies, along with international organizations and a wide variety of other clients.

Read more at: https://bestsolutions.ee/

Baku, 6 November 2019

On 3rd November 2019 with support of the Innovation Agency under the Ministry of Transport, Communications and High Technologies, Ministry of Education and Mingechevir city Municipality, the 5th traditional regional event was organized by the Azerbaijani Women's in ICT - “FEMMES DIGITALES” Club and was held at the Heydar Aliyev Center in Mingechevir, whose goal was to attract Azerbaijani girls to the field of information and communication technologies.

The regional conference was sponsored and supported by the companies and founders of Club such as Regional Innovative Public Association (RIPA), B.EST Solutions, Fominov Consulting, STEP IT Academy, Сybernet, MONT, Keepface, Resident of Mingechevir Hi-Tech Park HiTech Invest, Azerbaijan State Agency on Rendering Services to Citizens and Social Innovations under the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan and Bakinity Distribution.

The event, held at the Heydar Aliyev Center in Mingachevir, was attended by more than 70 students from different schools of the city of Mingachevir and the surrounding areas. At the first part of event, mentors from the founders of Femmes Digitales Club conducted a training for girls, during which they explained what a startup is, the phases of its implementation, the choice of an idea and how to implement these innovative ideas using technology. After that, schoolgirls of the grouped teams determined which innovative project they would like to implement, and presented them to the audience. Most of the time was devoted to discussion of the possibilities of implementing the ideas and projects proposed by the participants of the event. According to the results of presentation, the jury determined the winners of the contest, whose projects were evaluated in terms of prospects for its future implementation and creativity. At the second stage of the program, mentors, with the support of STEP IT Academy, held classes in coding and robotics, where the participants reviewed the programming process.

All schoolgirls were awarded diplomas and souvenirs.

The primary task of holding such events by the Femmes Digitales Club is to popularize ICT among girls, provide information about opportunities for training and work, relaxed communication with leading women experts in this field, and change stereotypes. Historically, over 500 girls from various regions of Azerbaijan have already taken part in such regional events.

Participants of the Club "Azerbaijani Women in ICT - FEMMES DIGITALES" conduct all events on a charitable basis and with great enthusiasm. All participants of the project noted the huge potential of girls in the regions; high interest and positive feedback of schoolgirls are the main inspiration and reason for

participating in these projects. “Every visit to the region of Azerbaijan and meeting with schoolgirls inspires us, together with all Club members, to do everything possible so that every girl in the most remote corner of Azerbaijan has an access to innovation. Each of them is the present and future of Azerbaijan, innovative and progressive. Their shining eyes and happy faces are the main motivator for meeting them repeatedly. And for us, the main gift is positive letters and feedback from teachers and their parents “ said the founders of Femmes Digitales Club.

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About «Femmes Digitales»:

Azerbaijani women in the ICT club - “FEMMES DIGITALES” is a non-profit organization established in 2014 aiming to attract more women interested in ICT. AWIC "FEMMES DIGITALES" motivates women working in technology companies, as well as those who operate in other sectors, using technology in their work. The organization’s goal is to bring together interested parties from public and private sectors, academia and non-governmental organizations, by providing the opportunity to support for increasing the professional participation of women in the ICT sector, as well as participating in the development of technological and technical products. One of the Club’s main activities is to popularize IT in Azerbaijani regions among schoolgirls. http://www.femmesdigitales.az

Baku, 10th October 2019

At the 3rd Digital Trade Forum named “Digitalization of the Silk Road” held on October 9, 2019 in Baku, for the first time in the history of Azerbaijan, the Agreement on formation a Public-Private Partnership Consortium through Asan İmza mobile electronic signature between the Center for Analysis of Economic Reforms and Communications, PASHA Bank, B.EST Solutions and AzerTelecom, was signed.

More than 200 delegates attended the conference, organized by the Center for Analysis of Economic Reforms and Communications, from the USA, Israel, Russia, the UK, Estonia, Turkey, Spain and other countries.

Speaking at the conference, CEO and Founder of B.EST Solutions - operator Asan İmza and Partner of Digital Trade Hub (DTH) in Azerbaijan, as well as the head of Mobile-ID project consortium in Azerbaijan, Mrs. Jana Krimpe, noted that Consortium will open new horizons for cooperation on sustainable development between public and private sectors, and that project can be considered as a very successful step towards the digitization of Azerbaijan.

She has also added that formation of consortium will further strengthen the position of Azerbaijan as a center of digital trade in the region, expand the use of digital technologies in the social, economic and financial sectors, as well as digitalize existing services, provide new services and other innovations to facilitate access to electronic services for legal and individuals being either residents or non-residents.

It should be noted that strengthening the process of providing cross-border electronic services within the framework of project with relevant legislation would open up great opportunities for Azerbaijan in the future.

Digital Trade Hub (DTH) of Azerbaijan:
DTH facilitates cross-border e-services such as e-customs, e-invoicing, e-banking, the opening of a company, taxes and accounting as well as e-document management including certificates of origin, phytosanitary documents, shipping documents and many more. DTH provides an unprecedented opportunity to connect to global markets. It allows the seamless trade of goods on a broad scale and makes a profound impact locally, regionally and globally.

The technology behind DTH is vendor-neutral and supports unlimited speed and traffic volume. It is not a cloud solution and each country as a system owner may download it and install it into their own environment. Governments have full control of their own data and its usage. After that, they can easily make a secure data exchange with any other country’s DTH.

DTH strives to become the Amazon or Alibaba of a country with a cross-border e-commerce platform that simplifies export procedures for local SMEs, all verified by the state. DTH connects different stakeholders and policy areas across sectors, borders and institutions, making it easy to move goods legally between countries.

OECD published case study for B.EST Solutions Digital Trade Hub in the Republic of Azerbaijan since 2017 and the DTH in Azerbaijan was recognised as an outstanding innovation as it generated $475 million worth of goods ordered in the first year of activity, contributing to the increase of non-oil exports by 27%.

Read more at: https://dth.azexport.az/

About Asan İmza:
Asan İmza is the national mobile-ID of Azerbaijan that citizens can get from Azercell, Bakcell, Azerfon and Pasha Bank. People have made more than 90 million transactions with it, making life more easy, secure and simple. You can use it to access 650+ electronic services from banking, tax and university to public e-services in a fast, secure and convenient way 24/7. Thanks to it, Azerbaijan is one of the leading countries in cyber security regarding e-identity.

Read more at: www.asanimza.az

About B.EST Solutions:
B.EST Solutions is a trusted partner operating Asan İmza. For managing the solution, its people have been awarded and recognized by Google and the Financial Times, the U.S State Department and German Marshall Fund, OECD’s Observatory of Public Sector Innovation amongst many. B.EST Solutions has been promoting and representing Azerbaijan at top major conferences around the world, fostering co-operation, foreign direct investments and cross-border trade with the goal of increasing the national wealth of Azerbaijan.
Read more at: http://www.bestsolutions.az