ASSA-IRADA,
7, February 2008

The worldwide leader in software development Microsoft plans to open its new electronic information center on Central Asia, former Soviet republics and the Middle East region in Baku, Minister of Communications and Information Technologies Ali Abbasov says.

"The center will play the role of the company's global representation in the region. It will include Microsoft's research and exploration center," he said.

The project will be implemented in the next two to three years and will allow Azerbaijan to receive tremendous revenues from e-commerce in the future.

Abbasov said further that Azerbaijan has its own project that could turn it into a transit area for the transfer of information. The project is currently under consideration.

"The goal here is to locate the abundant electronic resources accumulated in the West in Azerbaijan and for our country to be a regional leader in terms of information among countries that are very underdeveloped in this respect," the minister said.

He said Microsoft sees Azerbaijan as a reliable partner in these activities. Related issues were recently discussed between President Ilham Aliyev and the corporation's executives in Davos, Switzerland where the Azerbaijani leader was on a visit to attend the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF). The sides then decided to set up a taskforce to determine the conditions of cooperation.