The 3rd session of the Asia Pacific Information Superhighway (AP-IS) Steering Committee of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP), which is one of the five regional commissions of the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), is being held in Bangkok, Thailand. As part of the event, Regional Review of the World Summit on the Information Society is under discussion.

The Commission plays the role of a platform for regional states to discuss economic and social issues, as well as strengthen the regional cooperation.

Elections for the steering committee meeting were held as part of the event. The chairman of the steering committee meeting and deputy chairmen from four UNESCAP subregions were elected. Representative of the Ministry of Transport, Communications and High Technologies of the Republic of Azerbaijan Emil Ahmadov has been elected Deputy Chairman of the committee meeting from North and Central Asian subregions (Azerbaijan, Georgia, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan) and chaired the session “Asia-Pacific Information Superhighway and Infrastructure Links”.

Azerbaijan has high-level political relations with most ESCAP member states. Our country has been a member of UNESCAP since July 31, 1992. The organization is a very important platform for meeting our interests, especially in the fields of transport, ICT and energy.

During the event, discussions are being held on the contribution of the AP-IS to the implementation of sustainable development projects in the region, including the Trans-Eurasian Information Super Highway (TASIM) initiated by our country.

The session also reviewed the implementation of a number of initiatives initiated by the AP-IS project. It is also planned to update the documents for the next years (2019-2022) within the project’s General Plan and Regional Cooperation Framework.

During the presentation of the countries held within the 3rd session of the Steering Committee the event participants were given detailed information on the implementation of the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the SDGs in our country, as well as international projects implemented by our republic in the field of ICT and progress made, and  Strategic Roadmap for the development of information and telecommunication technologies of the Republic of Azerbaijan, covering various aspects of ICT sector development as well as related regulatory issues.