ITU offers Azerbaijan co-op in innovation
By Nigar Orujova
International Telecommunication Union has offered Azerbaijan to cooperate in the field of innovation.
Nenad Stankovic, ITU representative said the cooperation in this field would be discussed with the leadership of the High Technology Park operating under the Azerbaijani Communications and High Technologies Ministry.
“The idea is to organize in Baku the largest meeting in the CIS with the participation of private sector, universities, academies, and anyone who wants to contribute to the innovative development,” he noted.
This meeting can be arranged if ITU finds a reliable partner in Azerbaijan, he noted.
“The High-Tech Park can act as such a partner in Azerbaijan,” he said. “If this issue is solved, then by the scale this event may be comparable with the telecommunications exhibition BakuTel.”
BakutTel is the largest telecommunications exhibition in the Caspian basin and the Caucasus. This year, the exhibition brought together more than 200 companies from 21 countries, on December 2-5.
In its latest report for 2015, ITU said Azerbaijan took the 67th place on the index of information and communication technologies development rising three points compared to the figure of 2013, and nine points compared to 2010. Azerbaijan’s IDI was 5.79 in 2015.
In addition, Azerbaijan took the 60th place among 170 countries of the world for an average cost of ICT services.
Today, Internet is one of the integral parts of life for many Azerbaijanis.
The level of Internet penetration in Azerbaijan is 61 percent. This means that for every 100 people in the country there are about 20 users of fixed broadband Internet and 47 users of mobile broadband access.
The country is also developing its High Tech Park, one of which is under construction in Baku, and the other is located in Mingachevir, thus developing the sector in the regions of the country as well.
The High Tech Parks will provide its residents not only with equipment but with privileges as well.
Azerbaijan is also a leader among the countries of the region for the space technologies development with two satellites on the orbit and one satellite to be launched in 2017.
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Nigar Orujova is AzerNews’s staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @o_nigar
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