Preparation of action plan for ‘2013 - year of information and communication technologies’ discussed

A Working Group, consisting of representatives of the Ministry of Communications and Information Technologies of the Republic of Azerbaijan, Ministry of Communications and Information Technologies of the Autonomous Republic of Nakhchivan, Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences, business sector and civil society, has been established under the minister of communications and information technology’s order, with the aim of preparing an Action Plan for fulfilling the tasks emanating from the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan’s decree on "Declaring 2013 the year of communications and information technologies."

On 21 January 2013, the first meeting of the Working Group was held at the Ministry of Communications and Information Technologies.

During the meeting, the minister of communications and information technologies Ali Abbasov gave a high assessment to Head of State’s decision to declare 2013 the year of communications and information technologies. He said that in future, more efforts would be applied to accelerate the development of the ICT sphere in Azerbaijan. The minister shared his opinion about priority directions as regards to the fulfillment of tasks included in the Action Plan.

He pointed out the importance of realization of the state-private sector cooperation model in the Republic. The first vice-president of the Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences (ANAS) Arif Hashimov also made a statement at the activity. He said that ANAS had conducted initial debates regarding the execution of the presidential decree, and that ANAS would be taking an active part in the preparation of the Action Plan. Representatives of various business strictures and civil society organizations also spoke at the meeting.

Proposals for the implementation of the presidential decree will be accepted till January 30, 2013, and preparation of the Draft Action Plan is expected to be completed by February 5, 2013.

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