4th ECO Experts Working Group  Meeting on the  Trans-Asia-Europe Fiber Optical Cable System (TAEFOS)

held at Baku/Azerbaijan from 28-29 October, 2004

 Tehran, October 31, 2004

  

PRESS RELEASE

 

            The 4th ECO Experts Working Group Meeting on the Trans-Asia-Europe Fiber Optical Cable System (TAEFOS) was held in Baku on 28-29 October, 2004. The meeting was attended by delegations from the Republic of Azerbaijan, Islamic Republic of Iran, Republic of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Islamic Republic of Pakistan and Republic of Turkey as well as the ECO Secretariat.

 

            The Meeting was inaugurated by Mr. Mammad Mammadov, General Director of “Aztelecom” PU. He welcomed the delegations to the 4th TAEFOS meeting on behalf of the “Aztelecom” PU and wished the participants a very successful meeting. He conveyed greetings of H.E. Mr. Ali Abbassov, Minister of Communications and Information Technologies of the Republic of Azerbaijan to the delegates. He described TAEOFS as a huge construction project of 20th century and said that it had stimulated the development of communications in his country.

 

            In his statement Mr. Masroor A. Junejo, Deputy Secretary General (Transport and Communications) of the ECO Secretariat expressed the hope that the Experts Working Group would review the decisions made at the previous meetings and come out with concrete recommendations to improve cooperation in the field of telecommunications.

 

             Mr. Aflatun Mammadov, Head of Telecommunication Department of Ministry of Communications and Information Technologies being Head of the host country delegation was unanimously elected as the Chairman of the meeting. In his statement, Mr. Mammadov briefed the Experts Working Group on the role and progress that Azerbaijan made in the field of telecommunications and information technologies. He gave detailed information about the penetration of ICT in Azerbaijan. He stated that Azerbaijan was going to bridge the digital divide soon.

 

             During the meeting, the members of the delegations gave detailed briefings on the present status of operations of the TAEFOS segments in their respective countries. The meeting reviewed the decisions made in the previous meetings. The Experts Working Group also reviewed the measures required for improving the quality of operations of TAEFOS among the ECO member states. The meeting also provided an opportunity to the participants to deliberate upon the results of the bilateral meetings between telecommunication Ministries/companies of the neighbouring states. The meeting recommended that the next meeting of the Directors General of the Telecommunications Companies of the member states may be convened at an early date.

 

[Home]  [Contact us]  [Feedback]  [Back]