Preliminary terms of memorandum on cable highway proposed by Azerbaijan set

Istanbul will host another working meeting on the project of constructing the Transnational Eurasian Super Informational Highway (TASIM) in early November, Head of the Working Group on the TASIM Project Ilyas Naibov-Aylisli told.

He said the meeting is expected to discuss the business part of the project, particularly work on preparation of a Memorandum of Understanding for signing.

"These regular meetings can be named a preparatory step to the signing of the memorandum. During the meetings, the working group proposed some business plans that serve as the basis of the process. Operators mull the key ideas and initiatives voiced at the meetings, as well as make additional suggestions and corrections," Naibov-Aylisli said.

Today, all efforts are directed to that the Memorandum was signed within the framework of the 17th International Telecommunications Exhibition BakuTel-2011. However, he did not excluded that the negotiation process may be somewhat delayed due to the complexity of the project.

"Overall, I assess the current negotiations on the project as entirely successful. There is a great interest from both the telecom operators already involved in the project, and from operators in other countries, which is encouraging," Naibov-Aylisli said.

He said bulk of the work is assigned to the workgroup. Operators, in turn, having vast experience and excellent understanding of the market, help to achieve positive results.

The working group includes representatives from Azerbaijan, Russia, Kazakhstan, Turkey and China. Naibov-Aylisli said recently there was a meeting with the Ukrainian side, which has expressed principle interest in participating in the TASIM project.

"The Azerbaijani Communications Administration already held a meeting and consulted with the telecommunications industry regulator of Ukraine, as well as operators. We look forward to the Ukrainian side's joining this project," he said. The Georgian side, he said, also is interested in participating in the project.

A resolution submitted by Azerbaijan to create an information superhighway was adopted by the U.N. during its sixty-sixth plenary meeting. The document will eliminate all outstanding organizational issues to lay the Caspian segment of fiber-optic cable line.

The organization expressed support for the project, which aims to reduce poverty and increase economic growth. The project will serve as an engine for regional development.

Azerbaijan's resolution on the information superhighway "East-West" adopted by the UN is designed to connect totally 20 countries and play an important role for the development of the region.

The project's implementation will eliminate the existing "digital gap" between countries within the Western European and Pacific basins.