Azerbaijan, Baku, Nov. 5 / Trend H.Veliyev /
Azerbaijan pays special attention to the development of Internet, Minister of Communications and Information Technologies Ali Abbasov said during the meeting within the Seventh International Internet Governance Forum (IGF) in Baku on Monday.
"Now internet penetration in Azerbaijan is 65 percent and 30 percent is broadband," Abbasov said.
Abbasov noted that the number of mobile subscribers in Azerbaijan is increasing - there are 110 mobile phones per 100 residents. The whole territory of the country is covered by technology, mobile, internet, broadcasting, he said.
The minister stressed that another issue that Azerbaijan is paying attention is internet freedom and affordability.
"It is one of the ICT policy of Azerbaijan," he said.
Abbasov added that the number of facebook users in Azerbaijan is approaching to 1 million, and by activity rate for this indicator Azerbaijan is one of the leading countries in Asia and Eurasia.
He stressed that Internet is not controlled or regulated by Azerbaijani government.
The minister also noted that there are a number of problems with internet in the world, and Azerbaijan is concerned with finding the solutions.
Internet access should be opened for everyone, the minister said.
"But we are concerned with the fact that certain part of the world population has no access to the internet, particularly in poor countries," Abbasov said. "We are working with our partners to make a digital gap smaller in our region Eurasia."
According to Abbasov, another issue is information security.
"Today hackers attack internet. Unfortunately it is carried out with support of the governments in some cases. Azerbaijan is also a subject of such attacks. Cybercrimes know no boundaries. They are international and they turn into undeclared information wars," Abbasov said.
According to the minister, there is a need in internal criminal code and international cybersecurity for information security.
Third issue, according to Abbasov, is the freedom of Internet.
"We think that people should have the opportunity to freely express their own opinions online," Abbasov said.