Prof. Said Irandoust, AIT President, participated in the "First Forum of the Azerbaijan and Turkish Diaspora Organizations' Leaders" held in Baku, Azerbaijan, on 8-9 March 2007. His participation in the Forum was widely highlighted in the media through interviews both in English and Azerbaijan languages.
During his visit to Azerbaijan, AIT President met with H.E. Prof. Ali Abbasov and Mr. Iltimas A. Mammadov, Minister and Deputy Minister, Information and Communications Technology (ICT), Republic of Azerbaijan, to follow up on the progress of the proposal for strengthening ICT capacity in Azerbaijan to be submitted to Asian Development Bank (ADB). The Minister informed that he will be visiting Thailand and Vietnam in mid-April this year when he plans to visit AIT and sign an MoU between AIT and the Azerbaijan Ministry of ICT.
According to the Minister, the Government of Azerbaijan will consider to allocate some of 60 master’s scholarships from “Education Fund” to AIT. The “Education Fund”, was jointly established by the foreign industries in Azerbaijan. The discussion on this issue will take place during the visit of the Minister to AIT in April.
The ICT Minister also offered to extend full support to include AIT to receive part of the governmental fund to support for studies abroad in different fields, which was set up by the Government of the Republic of Azerbaijan, under the leadership of its President.
AIT President Irandoust had an opportunity to meet with academicians Prof. Kerim Kerimov (earthquake expert) and Dr. Rustam B. Rustamov (space science technology expert) who expressed their interest in collaborating with AIT. This will be later discussed by AIT President and AIT’s concerned fields of study.
At the same event, the AIT President further met with H.E. Mr. Kwan-chul Lew, Ambassador of South Korea to Azerbaijan, and was able to provide an update on the Azerbaijan ICT proposal and requested for the support from the Government of South Korea to provide some funding from "Knowledge and ICT Fund" which was established at ADB for the promotion of ICT related initiatives.
He also presented some of AIT’s new strategies and directions to H.E. Mr. Gunnar Aden, Ambassador of Sweden to Azerbaijan.