UPU Director General views Bakutel 2016 exhibition

Director-General of the Universal Postal Union (UPU) Bishar Hussein, who is on a visit to Azerbaijan, visited the exhibition held at Baku Expo Centre within the 22nd Azerbaijan International Exhibition and Conference on Telecommunications and Information Technologies Bakutel 2016.

Note that this is the third visit of the high-ranking official of the UPU to our country.

Bishar Hussein, who is a citizen of Kenya, has been holding the position of UPU Director General since 2012.

While visiting the exhibition, the UPU Director-General visited the pavilion of the Ministry of Communications and High Technologies (MCHT) consisting of all the stands of the ministry’s subordinate organisations and enterprises.  Minister of Communications and High Technologies Ramin Guluzade informed him about the work done and ongoing projects.

While viewing the stand of E-government portal, it was noted that 418 types of electronic services are provided through the portal. Over 100 thousand electronic signatures have been issued in the country so far.

Then the guest was informed about our country’s first regional Data Center.

It was noted that the newly established Data Center which is  based on cloud technologies and  has an international certificate TIER III, meets modern international standards and  is the first Data Center  in the region and is fully operational. The Data Center will accelerate the development of the ICT sector in Azerbaijan, as well as the integration of information systems of the country into the global information space, will create conditions for innovation and give impetus to the integration of cloud technologies, which are considered  to be the most advanced technologies of our time in the public and private sectors.

During familiarization with the stand of the newly created “Network” service centers it was informed that Ministry of Communications and High Technologies will provide all services from a single center through this network. Thus, it will create wide opportunities for the use of telecommunication, Internet, postal and other communication services, and it will also  prevent loss of time while using these services.

Then, information was provided on support rendered to innovative ideas, intellectual business entities and conditions created for start-ups.

During familiarization with the stand of Azercosmos OJSC  it  was informed that 44 television and 14 radio channels  are being broadcasted via the country’s first telecommunications satellite Azerspace-1. The Earth observation satellite Azersky made it possible to acquire images in a faster and more reliable way. It was noted that contracts have been made on manufacture of the second telecommunications satellite Azerspace-2 by  company SSL and launch it into orbit by company  Ariannespace.

While viewing the products of local startups  it was  noted that  the games created by startups operating in the Incubation Center of High-Tech Park, which received  grant from the State Fund for Development of Information Technologies under the brand “Made in Azerbaijan”,  are high-quality graphic games that have won success both  in our country and abroad. Among these products “Baku track” and innovative games of different levels arouse interest.

It should be noted that the Universal Postal Union is one of the specialized United Nations agencies and the organization has 193 member countries. Azerbaijan was admitted to the UPU in 1993.

The organization regulates international postal services, performs the function of focal point in the development of a global network and services.

In recent years, Azerbaijan has strengthened its cooperation with this organization. Projects were implemented in different years for the development of Azerbaijani Post with technical support of UPU.

This year, Azerbaijan was elected co-chair of the 4th commission on postal and financial services of the UPU Postal Operations Council.