Minister: Azerbaijan set to continue cooperation with ITU for ICT sector dev’t

By Azernews

By Ayya Lmahamad

Azerbaijan intends to continue cooperation with the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in order to expand the inter-country dialog in the ICT sector, Digital Development and Transport Minister Rashad Nabiyev said at the plenipotentiary conference of the ITU, Azernews reports.

The minister noted that Azerbaijan has been an active member of the ITU since 1992 and the ITU Council since 2014.

“We intend to continue cooperation with this prestigious international organization in order to expand the inter-country dialogue in the ICT sector,” he said.

Noting that building a creative and innovative society in Azerbaijan is possible only through digital transformation, he stated that a number of state programs, aimed at accelerating digital transformation, were adopted and are developing.

“We continue to invest in the country’s broadband infrastructure and are implementing national broadband projects using GPON and LTE technologies,” he said.

Moreover, Rashad Nabiyev stated that at the regional level, Azerbaijan is the initiator of the Trans-Caspian Fibre-Optic Cable Line project to lay a fiber-optic cable line between Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, and Turkmenistan along the Caspian seabed.

“This initiative will create opportunities for the emergence of digital services in the countries of the South Caucasus, the Middle East, Central Asia, and South Asia. These projects are of great importance, and we need to gather our resources and create synergies to bring the benefits of ICT to all peoples and all segments of society,” he said.

The ITU Plenipotentiary Conference is being held in Bucharest, Romania from September 26 to October 14, 2022. Azerbaijan is represented by a delegation headed by Digital Development and Transport Minister Rashad Nabiyev.

To note, the ITU Plenipotentiary Conference, which takes place every four years, elects the secretary-general, deputy secretary-general of the organization, directors of the bureau, including members of the ITU Radio Regulations Committee and the Council, the governing body of the ITU. In these elections, Azerbaijan was nominated to the ITU Council for 2023–2026 and a representative of the ministry, Sahiba Abdullayeva, was nominated to the organization’s Radio Regulations Committee.