Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan to ink contract on TASIM
By Aynur Karimova
Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan have agreed to sign a contract on laying the underwater segment of the Trans-Eurasian Information Super Highway project, Ali Abbasov, Azerbaijan’s Communications and High Technologies Minister told journalists.
He said a contract with Kazakhstan is expected to be signed in the first half of 2015, and the construction works can be started by late 2015.
Earlier, a source in the telecom market of Azerbaijan told Trend that Azerbaijan plans to boost talks with Kazakhstan for construction of the underwater segment of TASIM.
The active phase of the talks between the two countries is expected to start in 2015.
The parties are set to mull the issues of accelerating the construction of the Caspian segment of TASIM, including the management, control systems and other technical aspects of the project.
The TASIM project with an initial cost of $100 million envisions creating a major transit link from Frankfurt to Hong Kong. The line will connect major centers of data exchange in Europe and Asia together, stretching through China, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Turkey, and Germany. A reserve North transit line will pass through Russia, Ukraine and Poland.
A Memorandum of Understanding was signed on the establishment of the TASIM consortium during the 19th international BakuTel-2013 conference and exhibition in December.
In September 2013, the UN General Assembly passed a resolution supporting Azerbaijan's initiative on establishment of Eurasian Connectivity Alliance (EuraCA) and construction of TASIM.
TASIM will be implemented in two stages. The project is expected to come on stream at the cost of $100 million. The length of TASIM will be 11,000 kilometers and its initial network bandwidth will reach 2 Tbit/s.
The participants of TASIM have approved the World Bank's proposal on laying the third alternative route through the territory of Turkmenistan. This route will lead to China, as well as the East Asian countries (Indonesia, Vietnam, etc.) with a high requirement for internet capacity.
One of the main plans for the implementation of the TASIM project is construction of the Caspian segment of TASIM, which will connect the largest information exchange centers of Europe and Asia.
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Aynur Karimova is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on
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