Azernews.Az

An international telecommunications and ICT exhibition and conference, BakuTel, opened in the Azerbaijani capital Baku on Wednesday with the participation of industry majors from around the world. The opening ceremony was attended by President Ilham Aliyev and First Lady Mehriban Aliyeva.

President Aliyev toured stands of the companies participating at the exhibition.

Further, the president joined the ceremony of launching 3G services by the local cellular operator Bakcell.

The four-day exhibition, organized by British ITE Group PLC and Iteca Caspian, its partner in the South Caucasus region, features the latest ICT products, equipment and services provided in Azerbaijan and far beyond.

The 17th annual ICT exhibition brings together about 250 companies from 29 countries. Over 40 percent of the exposition area is held by Azerbaijani ICT and telecommunications firms, cellular operators, distribution and service companies. For the first time, 18 national expositions of Austria, Hungary, France, Canada, Lithuania and other countries are displayed at BakuTel. The exhibition area and the number of participants have doubled in comparison with last year’s show.

Minister of Communications and Information Technologies, Ali Abbasov, said in his remarks that Azerbaijan is among the countries that have posted the highest growth in the ICT sector in the past 10 years. Currently, 60 percent of the Azerbaijani population are Internet users, with half of them using a broadband connection.

International Telecommunication Union (ITU) Secretary-General Hamadoun Tour told the opening that Azerbaijan is investing its "black capital" in human capital.

Ture went on to say that over 6 billion people around the world use cellular communication and more than 2 billion people are users of the Web.

He said further that Azerbaijan’s ICT sector has grown five-fold in the past eight years.

"ICT is one of the fastest-growing sectors of the Azerbaijani economy. Since Azerbaijan plays the role of a bridge between Europe and Asia, it has great importance in numerous regional projects."