Azerbaijan, Baku, 21 April / Trend corr S. Babayeva/ "The working group on Azerbaijani People's Computer project is developing financing mechanisms for the project and technical parameters for its implementation," Elmir Valizade, Vice-Minister for Communications & IT of Azerbaijan, said in ANSPRESS web forum.
According to Valizade, proposals will be submitted to the Government for consideration after the terms of the project are coordinated.
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 underprivileged Azerbaijani population with the computers through long-term credit and at a low interest rate.
"Implementation of the project will enable increasing the number of computers amongst the population," he said.
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.
There are plans to purchase 10,000 computers this year for the poor people. At initial stage, 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 internet users in the country makes up 1mln, with only 2-3% of them in the regions.