2 yıl önce

Türkiye’s Teknofest kicks off in Azerbaijan's capital

Türkiye's largest tech event has officially expanded to Azerbaijan as both countries look to strengthen co-operation and develop critical technologies.

AA

The four-day event will feature 10 technology competitions in different fields.

Teknofest Azerbaijan, the 2022 edition of Türkiye’s major technology and aviation fair, has kicked off in Azerbaijan's capital Baku.

Teknofest, first held in Türkiye in 2018, is officially expanding to neighbouring Azerbaijan this year and is scheduled to be held on May 26-29.

Last year saw Azerbaijan take part in Türkiye's Teknofest for the first time with 11 local companies and startups.

Selcuk Bayraktar, head of the board of the Turkish Technology Team event organiser, visiting the event area prior to the start of the festival told reporters that the enthusiasm of Teknofest can be felt everywhere in Azerbaijan, adding that he expects all Azerbaijani "brothers and sisters" in the event.

Bayraktar said they decided to organise Teknofest in Azerbaijan to strengthen the co-operation between Ankara and Baku and develop critical technologies.

The four-day Teknofest Azerbaijan will feature 10 technology competitions in different fields such as rockets, agriculture and unmanned aerial vehicles.

At the Baku event, companies and entrepreneurs are set to showcase their products and technical solutions.

On the entertainment side, the festival includes aerobatic flight shows from the Azerbaijani Air Force, the Turkish Air Force Turkish Stars and Solo Turk, a vertical wind tunnel, water attractions, flight simulators, and robots.

'Champions of technology'

Bayraktar underlined that the "champions of technology" will be given their awards on Saturday by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Azerbaijani counterpart Ilham Aliyev.

"Our nation's pride, Nobel Prize-winning scientist Aziz Sancar, who attended Teknofest in Türkiye, gave our students their awards and also gave them good advice...He will come to Azerbaijan and will give awards to our students," he said.

Bayraktar also stressed that Teknofest is a paradigm transforming event.

"We organised Teknofest in Türkiye’ with a motto: 'let a child come touch an airplane. Maybe that child will work in our country's space programme in the future.' In Azerbaijan we say: 'let a child come, touch an airplane, maybe it will take our countries to space'," he said.

He stressed that Teknofest is an event to "instill self-confidence" in people to develop high technology.

Some 5,000 competitors in a total of 1,000 teams applied to the competitions organised as part of the event, while over 250 of the 1,000 teams that applied made it to the finals.

A total of 32 countries, including Germany, the US, Ireland, Pakistan, Egypt, Argentina, Türkiye, Azerbaijan and other European countries, attended the Take Off Baku, an initiative summit held in Baku Crystal Hall as part of Teknofest Azerbaijan.

SOURCE: AA