Azernews.Az

By Sara Rajabova

The global Internet governance forum is underway in the Azerbaijani capital Baku with the participation of leading ICT companies.

The VII Global Internet Governance Forum (IGF) is being held as part of the 18th Azerbaijan International Telecommunications and Information Technologies Exhibition (BakuTel 2012).

President Ilham Aliyev and First Lady Mehriban Aliyeva attended the opening ceremony of the BakuTel 2012 exhibition on Tuesday.

President Aliyev, who viewed the exhibition with his spouse, wished success to the participants and issued his instructions and recommendations.

The four-day exhibition is attended by 160 companies from 23 countries. The exhibition features eight collective expositions, including national groups of Austria, Canada, Israel, France, Lithuania, Croatia and Estonia. Also, a Slovenian national group attends the exhibition for the first time this year.

The exhibition includes such segments as telecommunications, broadband communication and technology, wireless communications, satellite communications, broadcasting equipment and technologies, software and automation systems, IT and office technologies.

As before, the exhibition focuses on the aerospace industry, creating a system of satellites and personnel training.

One of the participants in this sector is Azercosmos, which is preparing to launch Azerbaijan's first telecommunications satellite, Azersat, into the orbit in 2013.

Internet development

Opening the IGF forum on Tuesday, Azerbaijani Communication and IT Minister Ali Abbasov read out a greeting letter from the Azerbaijani President to the participants.

"Nowadays, the Internet is not only space of exchange of information, but also an environment covering state administration, education, health, business, banking and other sectors that create new values," Aliyev said in his message.

The president noted that the protection of human rights is one of the important tasks of the present-day internet network.

"Development of online media, the freedom of opinion and speech on the internet, the expansion of social networks, ensuring open and transparent work of the government, engagement of citizens in the processes of management are new opportunities that the global network offers to people," Aliyev said.

The president noted that Azerbaijan pays special attention to the development of information and communication technologies and the internet.

"Roughly 65 percent of the country's population are Internet users and the latest 4G technology is already applied in our country," the letter says. "It is enough to say that there is freedom of Internet in Azerbaijan. Internet radio and Internet television programs, online newspapers and magazines, foreign and internal social networks are widespread in our country. Thousands of bloggers carry out free activity in the Internet space of Azerbaijan. We support any loyal activity of the Internet directed at forging friendly ties between the people and nations, establishing equal relations on the basis of mutual respect."

Head of the Presidential Administration's social and political affairs Ali Hasanov also stressed the importance of the forum while commenting on Baku's hosting the event, jointly conducted by the UN and the Azerbaijani government.

He said the Internet has become an integral and important part of the social and political life in Azerbaijan, and it has recently become one of the leading regional countries on the development of Internet.

"More than 60 percent of the population use Internet," Hasanov said.

"Free Internet, the dynamic growth of the number of its users, clear public policy in this area, expression of interest recently taken in Azerbaijan in this field were the reasons for choosing Baku as the venue of the forum," he told journalists.

Hasanov also said Azerbaijan continues the necessary work to launch its own satellite into space.

"Perhaps, after the satellite is launched in the near future, the number of providers will increase and other Internet services will be expanded," Hasanov said, adding that the Baku forum will support further development of the Internet in Azerbaijan and play a certain role in promoting Azerbaijan's success in this field.

"The participation of around 1,000 specialists and representatives of the organizations involved in the management and development of the Internet, in the forum, shows that Azerbaijan has fully reached significant progress in the development of this sector," he added.

Also speaking at the opening ceremony, Deputy Prime Minister Abid Sharifov said holding the global internet governance forum in Baku indicates recognition of the fruitful results of the policy aimed at "development of information society" in Azerbaijan.

Sharifov said the ICT sector in Azerbaijan is a priority area that is in the focus of President Aliyev's attention.

"Thanks to the president's decisions, this sector is developing rapidly, particularly in the area of applying ICT in the public administration system and rendering electronic services to the population," he said. "The problem with internet governance for sustainable economic and social development being discussed at the forum demonstrates the role of the Internet in our globalizing world, emphasizes the importance of the forum and stipulates the broad interest in Internet governance."

Sharifov added that this is testified by the participation of many attendees representing government agencies, businesses and public organizations at the forum.

Sharifov said close international cooperation can produce results in resolving many issues related to the challenges in the development of the whole world, including Internet regulation.

"Moreover, one should not turn the Internet into a tool for terrorism, religious, racial and inter-cultural xenophobia, separatism and other manifestations that are contrary to international norms," he said.

Minister Ali Abbasov said that combating cyber-crime becomes relevant in terms of using e-services and the creation of an electronic government.

Abbasov added that Azerbaijan works to introduce electronic government with services available to the population.

The minister also referred to the work to develop the telecommunication infrastructure and to expand the use of information technologies.

He added that the territory of the country has been covered by 3G. Operations are underway to further introduce the 4G standard.

Social networks are widespread in Azerbaijan and online TV and internet resources are being developed.