Azerbaijan has launched a national information and communications technology (ICT) strategy for the next decade to move the country into the digital era and harness the power of new technologies for development.
UNDP helped the Government develop the strategy, recently approved by President Heydar Aliyev, through a US$1.2 million project last year. Ahead is preparation of an action plan and implementation in pilot regions. The strategy focuses on the country’s preparations for the World Summit on the Information Society in Geneva, 10-12 December.
The software includes new Azeri fonts based on the global Unicode standard to facilitate use of the Azeri language on the Internet, a “polyglot dictionary,” online ICT training courses and “My School,” which promotes education through ICT. Marco Borsotti, UN Resident Coordinator and UNDP Resident Representative, welcomed the President’s approval of the national strategy. The UNDP mandate is to contribute to the country’s development, he said, and ICT is “an important instrument for achieving that goal.” UNDP is committed to supporting the Government in carrying out the next phase of the project, he said.
The national strategy includes developing legislation to create a legal framework for ICT development, mobilizing ICT for more effective and transparent public administration, promoting electronic business, integrating ICT into education and health care, and creating a national ICT infrastructure to close the digital divide and ensure access for all communities.
Vafadar Misirov, head of the Azeri Unicode project, said that new software available on the Internet will allow users to use a standard computer keyboard layout when working in Azeri. The polyglot dictionary has over 200,000 words and expressions and includes Azeri-English, English-Azeri, Russian-Azeri and English-Russian dictionaries, as well as games to facilitate learning the languages.
