Azerbaijan, Baku /corr Trend S.Babayeva / Ali Abbasov, the Azerbaijani Minister for Communications
According to Abbasov, the project will be carried out on a commercial basis through large financial organizations, of which talks are currently being carried out with some of them.
The financial source of the project which amounts to $80-100 mln has not been defined yet. The coverage zone of the satellite includes Europe and part of Asia, namely Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Iran. At present a special working group, AzerSat Project, is functioning at the Ministry with the participation of international organizations.
In 2008 Azerbaijan intends to launch a satellite which may take place only after 2010.
Azerbaijan is not a very large country and will not require all the satellite's resources, only 20-25% of its capacity. Therefore, the balance should be sold to other countries under its coverage.