29 January 2018
According to the Euronews media service, additionally to Azerbaijan, this system has already been integrated in some countries, including Namibia, Finland and Ukraine. This platform has been also successfully launched in the Faroe Islands and Japan, a country that is the world leader in innovative technologies. X-Road is also the world’s first platform to automatically exchange data between countries, which allowed automatic data exchange between Estonia and Finland.
X-Road is a decentralized system in which unified interfaces and interaction and data exchange protocols are defined. Any state body can connect its information system to the platform and set up access rights for other departments by certain rules. Commercial IT systems can also interact with X-Road and use data platforms. X-Road is the foundation of “e-Estonia” to facilitate interaction between citizens and the state, to link various databases of electronic services of the public and private sectors within the country and to function as a single mechanism. Estonia’s electronic solutions include the whole range of services available to the general public, and since each service has its own databases, they all use X-Road. In order to ensure secure data transmission, all outgoing and incoming data via X-Road have a log with digital signature, stamp and are encrypted and registered. X-Road was initially used as a tool for sending requests to various databases. Today it has evolved into a method enabling creation of services using data from several registries and information systems, transmit a large amount of data, and search multiple databases at the same time. X-Road was developed with provision for the further growth, so it can be expanded as new electronic services and new platforms emerge.
In Azerbaijan, the X Road platform was integrated by B.EST Solutions, Asan İmza Mobile ID operator, jointly with the Data Processing Center at the Ministry of Transport, Communications and High Technologies of the Republic of Azerbaijan. It should be noted that the introduction of the innovative X-Road platform was the result of close cooperation in the field of information technologies between Azerbaijan and Estonia. The Ministry of Transport, Communications and High Technologies, the primary player in design and implementation of e-government in Azerbaijan, is the main initiator of innovations and the development of the country’s most advanced technologies. It should be stressed that close cooperation with Estonia, a recognized world leader in the development of innovative technologies, successfully continues. According to Elnar Asadov, the Director of the Data Processing Center at the Ministry of Transport, Communications and High Technologies, “The result of such cooperation has a fruitful impact on the development of new innovative projects, which are the future of Azerbaijan. Thanks to the fact that modern Azerbaijan made its choice in favor of the information society, all conditions were created to eradicate bureaucratic delays and transparency of business. In addition, the implementation of joint projects has a positive impact on strengthening relations between two countries. The X-Road platform will also be an important component of the infrastructure, which will ensure a favorable investment climate for our foreign investors and businessmen.”
Besides, the Ministry of Transport, Communications and High Technologies of the Republic of Azerbaijan is doing work required in this regard and negotiating with a number of organizations, thereby creating all the conditions to achieve the desired outcomes in 2018.
It should be reminded that in the autumn of 2017 the Center for Analysis of Economic Reforms and Communications of Azerbaijan and the Estonian Center of the Eastern Partnership signed a memorandum of understanding within the framework of the 4th Eastern Partnership Business Forum. It should be emphasized that at the initiative of the Center for Analysis of Economic Reforms and Communications, Azerbaijan has become the first country following Estonia to implement the e-Residence project, which allows foreign citizens to get the e-İmza electronic signature. It should also be noted that for the first time the m-Residence project was developed in Azerbaijan, that will allow any foreign citizen to use “Asan İmza” Mobile ID and get access to all e-services in Azerbaijan. Implementing the bilateral mutual recognition of the Electronic signature between Azerbaijan and Turkey is scheduled for this year.
At the moment 91 public and commercial organizations providing over 1000 e-services to individuals and legal entities via e-İmza and “Asan İmza” are connected to the Azerbaijan X-Road system. By using the e-government gateway technology (similar to X-Road), more than 60 million transactions have been made in Azerbaijan, and about 40 million transactions have been made via “Asan İmza” through various information systems.
