Ministry of Transport, Communications and High Technologies (Azerbaijan)


The Ministry of Transport, Communications and High Technologies is an Azerbaijani governmental agency within the Cabinet of Azerbaijan in charge of regulation of the communications sector and development of information technologies in the country. On the 12 November 2015, the head of the ministry, Ali Abbasov has been dismissed from his post.

History

The first Ministry of Transportation, Postal Service and Telegraph of the country was established on May 28, 1918 with declaration of independence of Azerbaijan Democratic Republic. The first minister was Khudadat bey Malik-Aslanov. When the second cabinet of ADR convened, the government conducted administrative reforms and split the ministry into Ministry of Transportation and the new Ministry of Postal Service and Telegraph. While Malik-Aslanov remained Minister of Transportation, Agha Ashurov was put in charge to lead the Ministry of Postal Service and Telegraph on October 6, 1918. In three successive governments, Aslan bey Safikurdski, Jamo bey Hajinski and J. Ildyrym served as ministers of Postal Service and Telegraph. After establishment of Soviet rule in Azerbaijan on April 28, 1920 the ministry was transformed into Mail and Telegraph Commissariat. From the time of its inception by Soviet authorities, the communications sector was directly managed by permanent representatives of Ministry of Communications of USSR in Azerbaijan up until 1953. After restoration of independence of Azerbaijan in 1991, the Ministry of Communications was re-established.
On February 24, 2004 as per the Presidential Decree of Ilham Aliyev the Ministry of Communications was transformed into a bigger Ministry of Communication and Information Technologies.
On February 13, 2017 as per the Presidential Decree of Ilham Aliyev the Ministry of Communication and Information Technologies was merged with Ministry of Transportation and transformed into a bigger Ministry of Transport, Communications and High Technologies.

Organization

The ministry is headed by the minister with two deputy ministers and one head of administration. Main functions of the ministry are formulation and implementation of single state policy in the field of communication and information technologies; regulation of activities in the field of communications and information technologies; encouraging creation of new forms of social and economic activity through massive utilization of information technologies, creation of information markets; control over utilization of the radiofrequency spectrum and maintenance of aboveground satellite communication facilities; implementation of necessary measures for meeting the demands of state bodies, municipalities, physical and juridical entities for the communication and information technologies services.
Maintaining and regulating Azərpoçt mail and telegraph, phone communications, radio and television broadcasting, information technologies are within the duties of the ministry.
Internet is remains uncensored and free in Azerbaijan despite the government's criticism of the political opposition.

Responsibilities of the ministry

In accordance with statute, the Ministry of Transport, Communications and High Technologies has a number of responsibilities and its activities should be guided by the Constitution of Azerbaijan, binding international treaties, laws of Azerbaijan, decrees and orders of the president, and decisions and orders of the Cabinet of Ministers of Azerbaijan.
The main responsibilities of the ministry include: determining priorities for the improvement of the relevant field in the country; enabling the implementation of state programs and improvement concepts; coordinating the activities of other executive bodies relating to the relevant areas; ensuring the implementation of scientific and technological achievements in the field of transport, communications, and technology; implementing measures in the fields of information security and information protection; participating in the regulation of the use of radio frequencies; determining the conditions of connection, establishing the rules, and developing policy for the effective and reliable use of public telecommunications networks, regulating activities in the relevant areas, registering mobile devices according to the rules established by the Cabinet of Ministers of Azerbaijan; participating in the formation of the tariff policy on issues relating to the activities of the relevant fields, making proposals in this area on tariffs regulated by state. At the same time Ministry of Transport, Communications and High Technologies monitors the tariffs applied by operators and service providers that are not regulated by the state.

Data Center

Data Center is considered as the first TIER III, ISO 20000 and ISO 27001 certified data center both in Azerbaijan and South Caucasus. The center was established by AzInTelecom LLC on the base of the Ministry of Transport, Communications and High Technologies in 2016.  
The work level of the data center is 99.982%. Servers in the center are under sustainable control for 24 hours and seven days a week.  
Total area of the Data Center is over 700 square meters where data transfer is carried out at high speed.

The first national telecommunications satellite “Azerspace – 1”

The first satellite of Azerbaijan, Azerspace – 1 was launched into orbit on February 7, 2013 at 18:36 from the Kourou cosmodrome situates in South America. The satellite was developed by the American company Orbital Sciences.
According to the statistics in 2014 approximately 100 television and 20 radio channels were broadcast via Azerspace – 1.

Projects

Dilmanc project

This project is designed to create and implement formal linguistic technologies for the Azerbaijani language. Translation and dictionary systems between English, Russian and Azerbaijani languages have been created in the project and is available as an online service. European Association of Machine Translation included Dilmanc Project to the list of European research groups. Within this project voice-responded mobile computer was developed and distributed for blind users. This is a joint project of the Ministry of Transport, Communications and High Technologies and the Heydar Aliyev Foundation.
In 2010 the project leader A.Fatullayev was awarded honorary title “ Honored Engineer” by the president of Azerbaijan.

TASIM Project

Trans-Eurasian Information Super Highway is a transnational fiber-optic line covering Eurasian countries from the western Europe to the eastern Asia. The declaration on implementation of project was adopted in Baku on November 11, 2008. The project provides main transit link from Frankfurt to Hong Kong and the network will bring together the largest information exchange centers in Europe and Asia. The transit line will stretch across China, Kazakhstan, Georgia, Turkey and Germany. The northern transit link will pass through the territory of Russia, Ukraine and Poland.

AzDataCom Project

The project was established by the Ministry of Transport, Communications and High Technologies in a partnership with United Nations Development Program and provides a network infrastructure for data transmission covering all regions of the country. The main objectives of the project are elimination of the digital difference in the country, provision opportunities to use e-government services, development of e-government, meeting the demand of the government agencies, the public and the business sector for ICT services.
In the framework of the project AzDataCom network was carried out in 4 stages. At the first and second stages the network segment covering Baku, Sumgait cities and Absheron peninsula was commissioned. At the stages of 3rd and 4th areas located along the Baku-Ganja, Yevlakh- Shirvan and Baku-Astara were added to the network.