BAKU, Azerbaijan, September 17. Preparing for
the future labor market should not be limited to acquiring
technical skills, SOCAR President Rovshan Najaf said at the opening
ceremony of the Baku ID 2026 innovation festival held at the SABAH.
City Innovation Campus, Trend's correspondent reports from the event.
Najaf said that close cooperation with academies and
universities is important in this area. “The first step in this
process is to have teachers, specialists and mentors who can teach
and pass on different skills. It is not only about being able to do
something, but also about being able to act, respond to what is
happening and take a proactive approach,” Najaf said.
The SOCAR president stressed that companies cannot address the
challenges in this area on their own. “That is precisely why we
have very good cooperation with the Ministry of Science and
Education, various innovation and startup centers, as well as think
tanks,” he said.
According to Najaf, preparing for the future labor market should
not be limited to acquiring technical skills. “It is possible to
teach certain technical skills at vocational schools, but this is
not enough. Alongside technical (hard) skills, there is also a
strong need to teach personal and social (soft) skills,” the SOCAR
president added.
The Baku ID 2026 innovation festival is being held in Baku on
September 17–18, organized by SABAH.HUB Innovation Center, with the
support of government agencies and private-sector partners.
Baku ID brings together investors, startups and leading
representatives of the innovation ecosystem. The festival is being
held for the first time this year at the SABAH. city innovation
campus, one of Azerbaijan’s emerging centers for future
technological development. Bringing together industry, science,
capital and the public sector in a single environment, SABAH.city
is being developed as a modern ecosystem aimed at strengthening the
country’s innovation potential.
The two-day festival program includes keynote speeches, panel
discussions, startup presentations and networking sessions.
Discussions will cover key trends shaping the future of technology
and business, including artificial intelligence, venture capital,
angel investment, and financial, healthcare, education, green, and
property technologies.
As part of the festival, local and international startups will
present their solutions to investors representing Azerbaijan,
Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Türkiye, Georgia, the Middle East and North
Africa, and other international markets.
