Azerbaijan

His Excellency Secretary-General, 
Honorable Ministers, 
Distinguished guests,  

It is a great honor and pleasure for me to address the Plenipotentiary Conference of ITU on behalf of the Government of Azerbaijan. 

I would like to express our gratitude and appreciation to the Government of Romania for their warm welcome and hospitality extended to us since our arrival and also to the ITU Secretary-General, Mr. Houlin Zhao and the ITU Secretariat for all the efforts put into the organization of this conference. 

I would also like to extend my congratulations to Mr. Sabin Sarmas on his election as Chairperson for this important conference. 

Despite decades of efforts put in ICT sector development, the COVID pandemic has revealed a wide digital divide across geographic and social strata worldwide.  

Four out of ten people in the world still have no access to the Internet. Moreover, those who are connected, often lack the quality that would allow them to use the internet’s most powerful features, such as online learning, video streaming and telehealth. 

As a member of the ITU since 1992, Azerbaijan has long been working on developing the ICT sector in the country, strengthening cooperation with ITU, as well as actively participating in the activity of the Council 

“Azerbaijan 2030: National Priorities for Socio-economic Development” outlines the country’s vision for a “creative and innovative society”. We believe this vision can only be achieved through digital transformation.  

We have adopted and currently developing a number of government programs aimed at accelerating digital transformation. We continue investing in the country’s broadband infrastructure and implement national broadband projects applying GPON and LTE technologies. 

Our aim is to ensure accessibility and affordability, as well as full home broadband internet coverage by 2024 through increasing the percentage of fixed broadband subscriptions using the Fiber to the Home networks. 

On a regional level, Azerbaijan initiated the Trans Caspian Fiber Optic project to construct a fiber-optic cable line across the bottom of the Caspian Sea among Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan. This initiative will create opportunities for the emergence of digital services in the countries of the South Caucasus, the Middle East, Central Asia and South Asia. 

These projects are of high importance to us and we have to pull our resources together and build synergies in order to bring the power of ICTs to all nations and to all segments of society.  

It is in the same spirit that Azerbaijan puts forward its candidature once again for the membership of the ITU Council for the next term. We look forward to helping the ITU to promote and strengthen multilateral collaboration and application of ICT to address all the challenges. 

We also present the candidacy of Mrs. Sahiba Hasanova to be re-elected for the membership in the Radio Regulation Board (RRB). We, therefore call for your support and vote for both our candidacies during the forthcoming elections.  

In closing, I would like to express my sincere wishes for the success of this three-week Plenipotentiary Conference. I would also like to invite you all to the coffee break hosted by Azerbaijan after this session.  

Thank you for your attention!