Baku hosts ministerial meeting on TASIM

By Azernews

By Laman Ismayilova

A Ministerial Meeting on Trans-Eurasian Information Super Highway (TASIM) was held in Baku as part of the Bakutel 2016, the 22nd Azerbaijan International Exhibition and Conference.

Minister of Communications and High Technologies of Azerbaijan, Ramin Guluzade , adressing the event, spoke about the importance of TASIM project against the background of the reforms carried out in Azerbaijan for the development of the ICT sector, Azertac reported.

The Minister said that dynamically developing in the world, ICT is a priority area in Azerbaijan and it is in the spotlight of President Ilham Aliyev.

Ramin Guluzade hailed special role of TASIM in meeting the growing demand for the exchange of information among the countries of the world.

Turkish Minister of Transport, Maritime and Communication Ahmet Arslan, in turn, expressed satisfaction for being a partner in such a project. He said that Turkey was ready to provide all the support for the implementation of TASIM, which is considered the global project of the future.

The project supported by the United Nations is of great importance for partner countries, as well as world, Secretary General of the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) Houlin Zhao said in his speech.

He noted that such projects against the background of the dynamic development of ICT were promising future prospects.

In November 2008, the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology of Azerbaijan put forward the initiative to launch a project on building of the Trans-Eurasian Information Super Highway (TASIM).

A special Baku Declaration to create the Transnational Eurasian Information Super Highway was adopted on November 11, 2008 in Baku.

On 21 December 2009, the 64th session of the UN General Assembly adopted Resolution on Transnational Eurasian Information Super Highway. Co-sponsored by 30 countries and adopted by consensus the resolution acknowledges the role of the Republic of Azerbaijan in coordination of TASIM.

Since April 2010, the Ministry of Communications and Information Technologies of the Republic of Azerbaijan has established and funded an Executive Group on TASIM as a vehicle for project implementation. The Executive Group, in cooperation with a team of international consultants, created initial business concept for TASIM and negotiated establishment of TASIM consortium with the leading regional countries and operators.

On 21 December 2012, to speed up the fulfilment of the project, the UN General Assembly unanimously adopted a new resolution, which contributed to the update of political support of the UN for project TASIM. It should be noted that Afghanistan, Australia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, China, Canada, Germany, India, Georgia, Sweden, Israel, Iran, Iraq, Korea, Kuwait, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Kazakhstan, Qatar, Moldova, Pakistan, Portugal, Russia, Slovenia, Syria, Tajikistan, Turkey, Ukraine, United States and Japan were also involved in supporting the project.

The political support of UN to create Eurasian Connectivity Alliance which facilitates the policy dialogue on telecommunications transit route, regional promotion and support of cooperation, the growth of education, as well as serving as the creation of opportunities to exchange experiences and knowledge has been updated with the following resolution adopted without a vote at the 67th session of the General Assembly held on September 4, 2013.