Baku, Azerbaijan, Sept. 17
By Huseyn Veliyev - Trend:
Trilateral cooperation between the project TASIM, the UN programs of SPECA (Special Program for Central Asia) and CAREC (Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation) received support of the Azerbaijani government, a source close to the project told Trend.
The potential for cooperation was perceived optimistically at the first meeting of the working group on tripartite cooperation, which was held Sept.14 in the Ministry of Communications and High Technologies of Azerbaijan under the chairmanship of deputy minister Elmira Velizade, according to the source.
The meeting was attended by representatives of foreign affairs, economy and industry, finance ministries.
Close ties of the country's mentioned state institutions with SPECA and CAREC may have a positive impact on the formation of cooperation in the TASIM-SPECA-CAREC trilateral format, according to the source.
"The new format of cooperation, which received the support of the government, can attract the attention of international structures with a high level of expertise and knowledge of the region," said the source. "The essence of the trilateral format of cooperation is to unite efforts for implementation of various investment and practical projects, sharing knowledge and experience. Experience and knowledge accumulated for the past two decades by Azerbaijan could be useful to support the positive development of the region."
This cooperation will contribute to the wide exchange of experience of Azerbaijan in the field of ICT with the countries of Central Asia, the broad support of the TASIM project, create the possibility of TASIM's integration with the Asian information superhighway, supported by the UNSCAP program (The United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific), according to the source. UNSCAP is the founder of SPECA.
Earlier, UNSCAP marked TASIM as a key example of regional cross-border terrestrial communication. The above statement was reflected in the conclusion and recommendations on the development of AIS and posted on the official website of UNSCAP.
The document said that the TASIM project is intended not only to connect Europe and Asia, but also to become one of the key parts of the AIS.
At present, the TASIM project includes such countries as Russia (Rostelecom), Kazakhstan (KazTransCom), Turkey (TurkTelecom), China (China Telecom), and Azerbaijan (represented by the Center for International Relations and Calculations of the Ministry of Communications and High Technologies).
The TASIM project is designed to connect 20 countries, and its realization will help to address the information gap between Western Europe and the Pacific Basin.
Edited by CN