Azernews.Az

By Nigar Orujova

A top official of Mitsubishi Electric Corporation, Japan's giant manufacturer of electrical and electronic equipment, has said the recent launching of the first Azerbaijani satellite Azerspace/Africasat-1 promotes development of the country's space industry.

The remarks came from Senior Vice President of the company Takashi Sasakawa, who leads a Japanese delegation that attends a seminar on space cooperation running in the Azerbaijani capital Baku on Wednesday.

Welcoming the announcement of 2013 as the year of Information and Communication Technologies in Azerbaijan, Sasakawa said this important factor will play a major role in further development of the space sector.

Also, the Japanese side confirmed the country's readiness to cooperate with Azerbaijan in the space communication sector.

"The two countries' cooperation in this field will allow solving some problems of social nature," Sasakawa said.

The Baku seminar, attended by 27 companies and organizations engaged in the ICT sector, is expected to further strengthen the two countries' cooperation in the sphere.

Azerbaijan's interest in Asian market

The Asian market is of special interest for Azerbaijan and considered as the most perspective for the expansion of domestic production, ICT Minister Ali Abbasov said at the seminar.

"The Asian market is larger, more technically developed and less limited than the European one. Azerbaijan is interested in the local companies' expansion in the Asian market, especially the one in Japan," the minister said

Abbasov emphasized that Azerbaijan launched its first satellite in 2013, while launching of two more satellites is expected in 2014 and 2016.

In fall, Azerbaijan will start processing information received from other countries' satellites through an earth-based satellite station, he noted.

Abbasov said further that currently 80 percent of the Azerbaijani export is based on the oil sector, however, the country is seeking to considerably increase non-oil export by 2020.

"The GDP volume is expected to double through the ICT sector by that time," Abbasov said.

Earlier Abbasov said that ICT revenues exceeded $1.7 billion in 2012, which is 18 percent more than in 2011. According to him, this rate in previous years was 25-30 percent and the main task is to keep the figure at 20 percent. While maintaining such a pace, earnings from the sector will reach $8-9 billion by 2020.