Azerbaijan, Baku, May 25 / Trend H. Veliyev /
A memorandum to establish a consortium for the project East-West super informational highway may be signed within the Azerbaijani International Telecommunications Exhibition Bakutel-2011 (Nov.23-26), the Azerbaijani Deputy Minister of Communications and IT Iltimas Mammadov said on Tuesday.
He said at present, a working group created within this project is doing everything necessary in this regard. The project has already involved countries such as Russia, Kazakhstan, Turkey, Georgia and China.
"If we can reach certain agreement with at least these countries, then it will allow us to attract other countries to this project. Work in this direction continues. On this issue we could draw nearer with Kazakhstan, Georgia and Turkey. Maybe we can bring together all the interested countries at the Bakutel 2011 exhibition and the possibility of signing this document at the exhibition is not excluded," Mammadov said.
Earlier Azerbaijani Communications and IT Minister Ali Abbasov said that the establishment of the consortium will initiate commercial implementation of the project.
Azerbaijan's resolution to create the "East-West" information superhighway, adopted within the UN 66th plenary meeting will also eliminate all unsolved organizational issues on laying Caspian segment of fibre optic cable main.
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.
The project "East-West" is designed to connect 20 countries in total. Its implementation will eliminate the "informational gulf" between Western Europe and the Pacific Basin.