The opening of the Center for Coordination and Analysis of the Fourth Industrial Revolution in Azerbaijan by a decree signed today by President Ilham Aliyev will become an adequate response of the country's authorities to the latest challenges, Professor of the Azerbaijan State University of Economics (UNEC) Elshad Mammadov told Vestnik Kavkaza correspondent.
"The technological changes that are taking place in the world, of course, should receive an adequate response from the relevant authorities in terms of the formation of the public administration model. Over the past year, we have witnessed truly tectonic shifts in the global economy. We see that digitalization and technological advances are being introduced in all spheres of economic activity. Under these conditions, of course, Azerbaijan must adequately respond," he stressed.
Nevertheless, he warned, along with the advantages, the processes associated with digitalization, robotization and implementation of the new technological order achievements imply certain challenges. "I think that the relevant government institutions should form a model of state economic management that would allow, on the one hand, to take advantage of innovations and new achievements of technological progress, and, on the other hand, to adequately respond to challenges associated with social problems, unemployment, the actual loss of a number of professions in the new realities, as well as challenges related to cybersecurity,” the expert explained.
"State structures must find an answer to all this and at the same time, of course, use the advantages of new visions, because this is a significant acceleration of the entire economic turnover, in particular, through digitalization; we are talking about the introduction of bioengineering, biotechnology, and cellular technologies in an advanced format, including in the health sector, which has now become the largest sphere of economy. In agriculture, cellular technologies and artificial intelligence will be actively introduced to increase the competitiveness of the regional agricultural sector of the Azerbaijani economy," Elshad Mammadov added.
The professor specified that if Azerbaijan does not timely invest in these priority areas of the world economy, then it risks being left on the sidelines of world economic development. "Considering that the demand for our traditional export goods will fall with the development of a new technological order, we risk facing serious economic problems. Therefore, an adequate response of the authorities to the achievements of our technological progress, new trends and realities of the world economy is necessary," the expert concluded.
