President Ilham Aliyev has amended the Model Regulation on Technology Parks, approved by a decree dated May 15, 2014.
“Operative Information Center-OMM” reports that the head of state signed a new decree on the matter.
Under the decree, a legal entity or an individual conducting business without establishing a legal entity on the technology park’s territory under a lease agreement for the park’s infrastructure with the managing organization (or with the operator, in the case of infrastructure owned by the operator) will be considered a non-resident of the technology park. This applies to business activities that involve providing goods, work or services to the park’s residents.
Unless the management agreement provides otherwise, when its term expires, infrastructure facilities owned by the operator may be transferred to the managing organization under the handover procedure specified in the agreement, taking into account the rights and encumbrances of third parties and subject to the parties’ mutual consent or the compensation terms set out in the agreement. Production facilities, equipment and installations established using a technology park resident’s funds for scientific research and experimental design work are considered the resident’s property.
The regulation also introduces the following definitions:
digital technology – technological solutions comprising software, devices, tools, telecommunications networks and related systems that enable the creation, collection, processing, storage, transmission and use of data in digital form, and serve to automate and optimize economic, social and administrative activities and support innovative development;
artificial intelligence technology – an algorithmic system, or combination of such systems, that uses computational methods related to statistics or other mathematical techniques to perform functions requiring human intelligence (including forecasting, planning, classification, pattern recognition, organization and perception, speech, sound and image recognition, text, sound and image generation, language translation, communication, learning and problem-solving). Within objectives set by people, it produces outputs such as content, predictions, recommendations or decisions that affect the environments with which it interacts, and assists or may replace people in decision-making and other processes;
innovation product – a product (work or service) or technological solution aimed at resolving technological uncertainty, newly created or significantly different from previous ones in its properties, field of application and/or method of use (substantially improved), providing economic, social or environmental benefits, and offered to consumers (brought to market), put into practice or confirmed by a document showing its registration as a patent (for an invention, utility model or industrial design) in accordance with regulatory legal acts;
cybersecurity – the protection of information infrastructure from cyber threats, cyberattacks and cyber incidents, and the assurance of its cyber resilience (the ability to withstand cyber incidents, maintain operations during them and restore operations promptly afterward);
scientific research, design and survey work, and experimental design work – activities aimed at resolving existing scientific or technological uncertainties in science and technology, acquiring new knowledge, and creating new or substantially improved technologies, software, products, services or processes, while collectively meeting the criteria of novelty, creativity, systematic conduct and reproducibility (transferability);
cloud computing services – the provision, over the internet or other telecommunications networks, of remote, on-demand access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources, including networks, servers, data storage systems and other resources, as well as software, applications and platforms, including infrastructure-, platform- and software-as-a-service models.
Land plots in a technology park may be leased by the managing organization to the operator to establish infrastructure in the park. Termination of the management agreement between the park’s managing organization and its operator is grounds for terminating the lease agreement concluded with the operator.
Infrastructure leased to a technology park resident or non-resident may not be subleased to other persons without the written consent of the managing organization (operator), or used for purposes not specified in the agreement on conducting activities in the technology park.
The Cabinet of Ministers must take the necessary measures within three months to improve its May 15, 2015 decision approving the Regulation on the Expert Council of the Technology Park, report to the head of state and resolve other matters arising from the decree.
Technology park registration certificates issued before January 1, 2027, will remain valid. Those residents must bring their activities into compliance with the decree by the end of the year.
