Ramin Guluzade: “Armenian provocations hinder ICT development in the entire region”

A ministerial roundtable was organized jointly by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and Vietnam as part of the international event ITU Virtual Digital World 2020.

The video event, which was attended by ICT officials from many ITU member countries, focused on “The role of digital technologies during and after the COVID-19 pandemic”.

The event began with opening remarks by ITU Secretary-General Houlin Zhao, Minister of Information and Communications of Vietnam Nguyen Manh Hung and Director of the ITU Radiocommunication Bureau Mario Maniewicz.

Minister of Transport, Communications and High Technologies of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ramin Guluzade spoke at a roundtable, which discussed the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on digital development at the global and national levels.

In his speech, the Minister spoke in detail about the work done in our country to combat COVID-19 and minimize the impact of the pandemic.

Ramin Guluzade said that even during the pandemic, citizens were provided with high-quality transport, postal and telecommunications services, including the Internet and mobile services. The resilience of the telecommunications infrastructure has been enhanced in line with demand.

The Minister noted that government agencies have created new information systems, as well as special websites, a mobile application used as a citizen notification system and a tracking system for infected people.

“During the pandemic, we launched the Connected Government projects in the education sector with the aim of providing video conferencing services for connected schools and institutions,” said Ramin Guluzade.

The Minister stated that Azerbaijan is currently fighting on two fronts: “Along with the pandemic, we are taking the necessary steps in response to the provocations and aggression of Armenia, which hinder the development of ICT in the entire region.”

Ramin Guluzade added that due to the recent military provocations of Armenia, ICT and telecommunications infrastructure in Azerbaijan’s several regions were either completely destroyed or seriously damaged. In recent days, as a result of this aggression, 63 Azerbaijani civilians, including children, were killed, and 293 civilians were injured.

At the end of his speech, the Minister noted that despite all these difficulties, the Azerbaijani government will continue its efforts to expand development strategies.