BAKU, Azerbaijan, October 1. The total
population of the CAMCA region is approximately 150 million people,
and its gross domestic product (GDP) potential is approximately
$700 billion, the Executive Director of the Center for Analysis and
Coordination of the 4th Industrial Revolution (C4IR), Fariz
Jafarov, said at the CAMCA regional forum held in Baku on Thursday,
Trend's correspondent
reports from the event.
He noted that this potential creates broad opportunities for
countries in the region in the fields of artificial intelligence
(AI), digital transformation, and the development of new
technologies.
“The region as a whole has a population of about 150 million
people, and its GDP potential is approximately $700 billion.
Although we cannot compete with the United States and China in the
development of artificial intelligence, we can apply it in everyday
life,” Fariz Jafarov noted.
According to him, countries in the region can expand cooperation
in the application and development of artificial intelligence
technologies.
“In the field of artificial intelligence, there are ‘creators,’
‘users,’ and ‘shapers.’ The creators are the United States and
China, which produce a wide range of AI products. We can be good
users and play the role of ‘shapers’ in this field by studying and
creating our own large-scale language models and global tools,” he
said.
Fariz Jafarov noted that energy supply is one of the key factors
in the development of the artificial intelligence ecosystem.
“The energy aspect is of vital importance. Every country needs a
sufficient amount of electricity to build artificial intelligence
infrastructure. This is necessary, first and foremost, for the
operation of data centers, as well as to power cooling systems.
This requires a large amount of energy,” emphasized the executive
director of C4IR.
He noted that countries in the region, such as Azerbaijan,
Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan, have extensive opportunities in this
area thanks to their diverse energy sources.
“Today, we in Azerbaijan have fully focused our attention on
this. Even our state-owned oil company, SOCAR, does not want to
sell oil and gas to various markets merely as raw materials;
instead, it is investing in the creation of data centers. In
essence, it is transforming the energy sector into an artificial
intelligence business. Currently, this is one of Azerbaijan’s main
areas of activity,” noted Fariz Jafarov.
According to him, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan are also
implementing projects to build data centers.
“Kazakhstan plans to build a data center with a capacity of
about 400 megawatts. Uzbekistan also has similar plans in the
energy and investment sectors. Azerbaijan is taking steps to
attract foreign investment to establish data centers. A major
contract was recently signed with Oracle and Haymaker,” he
said.
Fariz Jafarov emphasized that Azerbaijan’s regional role is
strengthening not only in the areas of logistics and energy
interconnections but also in the field of digital
transformation.
“Azerbaijan serves not only as the Middle Corridor for
logistics, energy, and freight transportation, but also as a hub
for digital transformation in the region,” he noted.
He noted that digital connectivity is one of the main pillars in
the development of an artificial intelligence ecosystem.
“We are fulfilling this role through the ‘AzInConnect’ and ‘Silk
Road’ digital connectivity projects, which we are implementing
jointly with Kazakhstan. I hope the project will be ready by the
end of this year. This opens up great opportunities. Because
without connectivity, it is impossible to provide any artificial
intelligence-based solutions or data processing services,” the
executive director of C4IR said.
“This could create the conditions to attract large, hyperscale
companies to Azerbaijan, have them locate their data centers in our
country, and provide services on both a regional and global scale.
This is because electricity in this region, at least for now, is
cheaper than in Europe. Once high-speed connectivity is in place,
this is a very attractive model for European markets to turn to
Azerbaijan,” he added.
Fariz Jafarov noted that another important element of the
artificial intelligence ecosystem is computing power.
“We recently signed a contract with Dell, and we have two
supercomputers in Azerbaijan. Other countries in the region are
also competing for these capabilities. Because without computing
power, it is impossible to run any artificial intelligence model,”
he emphasized.
He noted that data and human capital are also important for the
development of artificial intelligence.
“Building a data center requires not only engineers but also
people who build and manage these centers, as well as those who
develop AI-based solutions. According to the World Economic Forum,
artificial intelligence will lead to the loss of more than 90
million jobs, while creating about 170 million new ones,” Fariz
Jafarov said.
According to him, developing people’s skills in line with the
changing demands of the labor market is one of the key issues.
“The main challenge facing us as a government is how to enhance
and adapt people’s skills so that they can turn knowledge into
business using artificial intelligence,” he noted.
Fariz Jafarov also spoke about the education and skills
development programs being implemented in Azerbaijan in this
area.
“We have programs with Coursera. For three years now, we have
been providing free access to more than 70,000 Azerbaijanis. There
are over 21,000 online courses on the platform, and most of them
are related to artificial intelligence. We’ve even translated more
than 3,000 courses into Azerbaijani using artificial intelligence.
This is one of the positive aspects of artificial intelligence,” he
said.
He added that Azerbaijan is also focusing on developing human
capital in the field of artificial intelligence through cooperation
with international technology companies.
“We recently signed an agreement with OpenAI to train more than
500,000 Azerbaijani students in artificial intelligence skills. We
have also signed an agreement with SpaceX/Grok, and new partners
are coming to the region,” emphasized Fariz Jafarov.
According to him, school curricula are being updated, and
educational programs are being implemented in collaboration with
various universities.
The executive director of C4IR noted that the “SABAH.HUB”
innovation center will also play an important role in this
area.
“Recently, with the participation of the President, we opened
the ‘SABAH.HUB’ innovation center. Here, we are striving to build
Azerbaijan’s ‘Silicon Valley’ on a 20-hectare site. Three
universities, more than 30 laboratories, more than 100 startups,
and more than 100 IT companies will operate here. This will be a
collaboration between industry and academia,” he said.
Furthermore, Fariz Jafarov noted that the main goal is to
connect universities and startups with the needs of industry and to
strengthen the transfer of scientific knowledge and expertise to
the business sector.
