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Azerbaijan is at the threshold of the post-industrial epoch with the inherently developed, highly technological and informational economy. With the purpose of supporting the ICT sector, several state programs have been adopted and the State Foundation for the Development of Information Technologies has been established in the country, High Technology Park is being created, international projects on the development of the Internet infrastructure are being implemented, etc. The mainstream directions of the domestic IT sector were presented in the most vivid way at the 19th Azerbaijan International Telecommunications and Information Technologies Exhibition (BakuTel 2013), which was held in early December, and the international conferences that took place alongside this event.

Major exhibition 

For nearly two decades, international telecommunications exhibitions organised in Baku annually with the support of the Iteca Caspian company have been serving as a kind of a show-case demonstrating the achievements of Azerbaijan's ICT sector. Not to a lesser extent, this forum serves as a venue where the world's major IT companies present new technologies, gadgets, software products, as well as promising plans regarding our country.

The BakuTel 2013 exhibition, which was held at the Baku Expo Centre international exhibition complex, was impressive in terms of its scope and diversity of exhibits and the attention of specialised international entities paid to the development of information technologies in our country. The exhibition area of the event has increased by 35 per cent this year, and the pavilions of the participants occupied three halls and the lobby for the first time, encompassing 12,000 square-metre space. 300 companies from 28 world countries were represented at the current exhibition, with the national pavilions of Afghanistan, Italy and the United States being displayed for the first time.

The organisation of colourful contests, prize drawings and virtual competitions was a peculiar feature of this forum, along with a grandiose show -- a fashion show with the use of outdated ICT spare parts and the demonstration of the world-famous Titan robot, which was delivered to CIS for the first time for the Azerbaijani exhibition, featuring a unique show.

Following the tradition, organisers of the exhibition timed to this event a number of international conferences on the topics of evolution and regional development of the Internet in Azerbaijan, cooperation in the area of cyber-security, the "Azerbaijan-Israel" and "Azerbaijan-USA" ICT forums, as well as the annual forum of the main telecommunication operators of the TASIM project and a meeting of the SPECA project working group "On the development of knowledge-based economy".

Super-plans on TASIM Super Highway 

The most significant event of this kind was the signing of the Baku Memorandum of Understanding on the implementation of the Trans-Eurasian Information Super Highway (TASIM) project. It is remarkable that the project, which envisages connecting more than 20 countries of Europe and Asia with a high-speed information network, was presented for the first time by Azerbaijan's Ministry of Communications and Information Technologies five years ago at the BakuTel exhibition. In the past years, such countries as Russia, represented by the Rostelecom operator, Kazakhstan (KazTransCom),  Turkey (Turk Telekom), China (China Telecom), as well as Azerbaijan's AzTelekom, have been involved in the work of this undertaking. The TASIM secretariat, founded several years ago, plays the role of the coordinator among the leading telecommunication operators. The Information Super Highway project has been repeatedly presented during international ICT exhibitions and conferences held in China, Turkey, the U.S. and other countries of the world. In November 2009, in December 2012 and this September, the TASIM project was unanimously approved by the UN General Assembly.

All the three resolutions emphasize that it is an ideal platform for facilitating international cooperation within the Eurasian Connectivity Alliance that promotes modernisation and diversification of telecommunication channels, sustainable development of the information and communication technologies sector, as well as elimination of the "digital inequality" in the vast Eurasian space. However, the key goal of the UN's passing its third resolution is to speed up the solution of the main task facing the project participants: to establish an international consortium for the implementation of this trans-regional project. The Baku meeting of the communication operators of the five countries that are initiators of the TASIM project and the MoU they signed were dedicated to the solution of this very task.

"The conduct of this project will allow solving the problems of the digital divide both in the South Caucasus and in the vast Eurasia region overall. The project will facilitate the creation of new jobs in the science-based sectors of the economy and an increase in the volume of services based on high-speed Internet," Azerbaijani Minister of Communications and Information Technologies Ali Abbasov said, summing up the signing ceremony.

Russian Minister of Communications and Mass Media Nikolai Nikiforov's views regarding the future of the project are just as optimistic. 

"Taking into account the expected growth in the volume of transmitted data -- primarily, Internet traffic, the TASIM project is of strategic nature for Russia," Nikiforov said. "In particular, given the Eurasian location of our country, the issue of a cross-flow of transit traffic between Europe and Asia is relevant. For operators, it is a lucrative business, and for our states, it is an opportunity to ensure their leadership in the developing information society. Surely, the implementation of this project will also benefit ordinary Internet users, as a cheaper and speedier access to the worldwide Web will become more accessible for them."

The Baku memorandum summarised the five-year results of the formation of the Trans-Eurasian Information Super Highway project. In essence, this document became a starting point for establishing the consortium as it outlined the shapes for further implementation of the project; the credentials and roles of the participants, their financial spending and legal status were determined as well. In the nearest future, operators are expected to adopt a separate agreement on the construction and operation of TASIM. 

"In approximately half a year after the signing of the Baku memorandum of intent, the signing of a principled agreement on establishing the TASIM consortium outlining all the technical aspects of the project is planned. The bulk of traffic throughput between the countries and zones of responsibility for specific sections of the highway have been distributed, the participating interestт of the project participants determined, broadband services offered and a concrete business model of the project outlined. Laying of new fibre-optic infrastructure with high throughput capacity is planned within the frames of the project, Zaur Hasanov, the TASIM project coordinator from the Ministry of Communications and Information Technologies, told R+.

Cybercrime attacks 

The conference titled "Cooperation in global cyber-security: problems and prospects", which discussed issues of jointly countering cybercrime and other IT threats, is worthy of particular attention among the international forums held as part of the BakuTel 2013 exhibition. 

One of the peculiarities of the present-day digital space is the dual use of IT technologies: along with tremendous advantages for companies and rank-and-file citizens, their application poses new risks. For example, this includes damaging information posted on websites or  servers, money theft from bank accounts, infection of computers with harmful viruses and spyware. This problem is exacerbated by the fact that such unlawful actions do not require physical intrusion and could be committed by hackers who are thousands of kilometres away from the crime scene.

According to the International Telecommunication Union's (ITU) Secretary-General Hamadun Ture, who participated in the conference, ensuring cybersecurity is a global issue and should therefore be solved through joint efforts of the international community. 

"Sources of cyber threats may be diverse, which ultimately could lead to real cyber-wars that could be thwarted by preventive measures-pre-empting and preventing such wars. Five directions could be emphasized as the main methods of combat. These are the availability of the necessary legal framework, technical readiness, national coordination, education and training of specialists, and the fifth, most important direction, is international cooperation," the ITU Secretary-General said.

In the past years Azerbaijan has been repeatedly subjected to hacker attacks and faced cross-border cybercrime. 

"About 90 per cent of cyber attacks against our country are committed from abroad, with some of them supported by the governments of separate, unfriendly states. This circumstance makes international cooperation in this sphere an option with no alternative," Minister of Communications and Information Technologies Ali Abbasov said, stressing that year-on-year Azerbaijan is deepening its cooperation with the European Union's telecommunication union and other specialised international organisations. 

According to the minister, streamlining legislation on fighting cybercrime will allow properly distributing roles in this combat as well as increasing its efficiency. In this regard, work on updating the Law "On information, informatisation and protection of information" is being finalised in Azerbaijan; the previous law was passed in 1998 and it is necessary to update it while taking into consideration the contemporary challenges and requirements.

In short, if we sum up the outcome of the four-day BakuTel 2013 exhibition and forum, it is noteworthy that Azerbaijan's telecommunication sector, which is actually the most actively developing segment of the country's non-oil sector, is acquiring the status of a regional centre even in such a fast-changing sphere as IT technologies. 

FIRSTHAND  

"Azerbaijan, which has attained sustainable growth in all areas of the economy and in the social sphere, has also risen to the level of the rapidly developing countries of the world in the sphere of ICT. ICT have had a great impact on society in the country. 70 per cent of the population use the Internet, and half of them - broadband Internet. The latest technology and digital television are successfully being implemented and the scope of sectoral investment and private sector activity are expanding from year to year. One of the historic achievements of our country - the placing of the first national telecommunications satellite Azerspace -1 into orbit, as well as the creation of a university and a state fund for information technology, a high-tech park and the adoption of stimulating measures create a solid base for transition from an economy based on natural resources to an innovative and technological economy."

From the address of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev to the participants of BakuTel-2013