71 percent of the country’s ATM market, introducing modern IT solutions and 10 years of successful activity. Such are the activity indices of the Lithuanian company Penkių Kontinentų Bankinės Technologijos (BS/2) daughter enterprise in Azerbaijan.

The representative office of BS/2 has successfully been operating in Azerbaijan for a decade. On 26 November 2009, it will be the tenth anniversary of establishing the daughter enterprise BS/2 Azerbaijan of the company group.

“As we knew the peculiarities of the Azerbaijani market well, we could not miss the opportunity to launch activity in this country. Ten years ago, in Azerbaijan we were known only as the providers of communication services and medical equipment. They hardly knew of our designed bank technologies and processing solutions and versatile payment systems. We started our activity from nothing and today we are the market leaders,” said Idrakas Dadašovas, CEO of the Penki Kontinentai Group.

BS/2 Azerbaijan started its activity in Azerbaijani banking sector by offering the services of equipment maintenance. Currently, it is offering the complete service complex to the financial sector, including supply, installing and maintenance of equipment, IT solutions, outsourcing, etc. According to Mr. Dadašovas, the main aim of the representative office is to provide even higher quality outsourcing.

Currently, BS/2 Azerbaijan is cooperating with the largest banks, financial institutions and processing centres of the country. Among the long-term customers of the company are the International Bank of Azerbaijan, Kapital Bank, Respublika Bank, Bank of Azerbaijan, etc.

“Today, we are still cooperating with the customers, which we started our business with in this country. I believe, it proves that we are a stable and consistent company, trusted by our customers,” said Mr. Dadašovas.

BS/2 is the largest supplier of self-service equipment in the Asian countries. Currently, 1,583 ATMs are operating in Azerbaijan, and 1,124 (71 percent) of them were installed by BS/2. It is noteworthy, that the first ATM – to be more precise, two ATMs – with the cash-in function in Azerbaijan were also installed by BS/2. It took place in 2005, in the IBA bank. In Lithuania, the first ATM with the cash-in function was installed in October 2006.

According to the Head of the Penki Kontinentai, the success in the Azerbaijani market was also determined by the understanding of southerners’ mentality.

“Trust is most important in this country and technologies are in the second place. The companies that do not follow this principle are not successful in developing their business,” said Mr. Dadašovas.

Lithuania and Azerbaijan are connected by close diplomatic and business relations and exchange specialists of different fields; the politicians and businessmen are constantly cooperating. According to the data of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Lithuania, the value of our production exported to Azerbaijan in 2008 was LTL 52.7 million. Compared to the year 2007, it grew by 72 percent.

The data of September 2009 of the Azerbaijan Central Bank indicates that the GDP of the country amounted to AZM 23,427.1 million (USD 292.8 million). According to the data of International Currency Fund, the economical growth of the country is 11.6 percent. Thus, according to the index of actual economical growth, Azerbaijan is one of the top ten countries of the world.

Moreover, this country can boast of natural resources of oil and gas. The country has created excellent conditions for tourism and business development and the market is open to foreign investment. The Central Bank of the country informs that at the end of year 2008, foreign direct investment in Azerbaijan amounted to USD 7,569.6 million.

The companies of the USA, UK, and Iran are actively developing their businesses in Azerbaijan. However, most European countries are only now opening the door to the Azerbaijani market and discovering its possibilities.