The 10th session of the Intergovernmental Council for the Information for All Programme (IFAP) was held at the UNESCO headquarters in Paris.
At the initiative of the Permanent Mission of the Republic of Azerbaijan to UNESCO, the delegation of the Ministry of Transport, Communications and High Technologies made a broad presentation on achievements, successful experience in the field of building an information society in our country, and work on the development of the current situation in accordance with the priority areas of the IFAP.
Speaking at the session, head of the Permanent Mission of Azerbaijan to UNESCO, Ambassador Anar Kerimov expressed gratitude to the Bureau and the secretariat of the IFAP of the Intergovernmental Council for the opportunity created for Azerbaijan to share best practices and achievements in the priority areas of IFAP. Touching upon the role of information and communication technologies in promoting peace and intercultural dialogue, the Ambassador noted that Azerbaijan supports the IFAP. He also recalled the panel discussions of IFAP "Cultural aspects of combating extremism in cyberspace: radicalization of youth leading to violence" held as part of the IV World Forum on Intercultural Dialogue, spoke about Azerbaijan’s policy in the field of sustainable ICT development.
Then the representative of the Ministry of Transport, Communications and High Technologies Rashad Azizov made a presentation on the progress made in the field of building the information society in our country.
The presentation provided detailed information on a number of projects implemented in recent years by the Ministry of Transport, Communications and High Technologies and aimed at the development of the information society, as well as on e-government, electronic signature, new generation ID cards. Important infrastructure projects such as access of the country’s population to the Internet, broadband network development and space industry were also highlighted.
Rashad Azizov emphasized that in priority directions of innovative economy and in ICT field startup projects, as well as projects on cybersecurity, multilingualism in cyberspace, IT projects for people with disabilities have been implemented.
The participants of the session were also informed about such successful projects as the centers of the State Agency for Public Service and Social Innovations (ASAN service), Copyright Agency’s digital rights management system, the project Azlibnet National Library - Information Center of the Ministry of Culture, the service centers "Shebeke" and the Data Center of Azerbaijan’s Ministry of Transport, Communications and High Technologies.
At the event meetings were also held with the newly elected chairman of the IFAP Intergovernmental Council Anna Bossman, IFAP Project Coordinator Boyan Radoykov, UNESCO Assistant Director-General for Communication and Information Moez Chakchouk and representatives of the member countries.
Within the framework of the session, a photo exhibition reflecting Azerbaijan’s achievements in the field of ICT was demonstrated.
In the end, a reception was arranged on behalf of our country for the representatives of countries participating in the UNESCO IFAP programme.
It should be noted that the main objective of the IFAP is to facilitate access to information in member countries. UNESCO’s information and communication mandate covers such areas as access to information, information ethics, information literacy, information protection, prevention of violent extremism and so on.
