Azerbaijan, Baku, 2 April / Trend corr S. Babayeva/ The initial date of the meeting of working group for Azerbaijan People's Computer Project has been defined, the Azerbaijani Communications and IT Ministry reported on 1 April.
For the successful implementation of the project, a special working group consisting of specialist of several ministries, Intel and Microsoft companies has been established at the Ministry. The core of the project is to provide the underprivileged Azerbaijani population with computers through long-term credit and at a low interest rate.
The meeting was set for 25 April. On 4 April, the working group will hold an internal meeting to develop the outline of the project.
In the recent meeting of the working group (14 March) Microsoft and Intel submitted for consideration the initial estimations for the implementation of the project. Azerbaijan developed the mechanisms for implementation of the project.
Microsoft will provide licensed software and Intel adequate hardware at privileged basis.
The Ministry plans to launch implementation of the project as a pilot one in one of the country's regions by the end of the year. "We have not yet selected the region, but probably, that will be an economically undeveloped region to achieve more effective results," the Ministry said.
There are plans to purchase 10,000 computers this year to provide them to poor people. At the first stage, the computers will be offered to teachers and students.
The project is intended for 3 years and its total cost has not been defined as yet.
According to the Communications Ministry's approximate calculations, for every 100 people in Azerbaijan there are only 5-7 people with the computers, while in the world the figure averages 20-25 computers. The number of the internet users in the country makes up 1mln, with only 2-3% of them in the regions.
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