A new state ICT development program covering the period 2013-2015 has been developed, Azerbaijani Communications and Information Technologies Minister Ali Abbasov told journalists in Baku on August 23.

"In the nearest future the program will be submitted to the government for consideration and approval," Abbasov said.

The minister also cited the main objectives of the program.

"The main problem to be solved is granting Internet access to everyone and telecommunication services. To achieve this we are planning to install broadband communication services in every household by means of the Fiber-to-Home technology. The State Oil Fund will allocate 450 million manats for the implementation of this task in 2013, 2014 and 2015. As a result, we will have 30 Mbit/s Internet access in the countryside and 100 Mbit/s in the cities, the Internet connectivity level will be increased to 85 percent already by 2017," Abbasov said.

He said that the mobile access to the Internet will also be developed.

"Currently such services based on LTE (4G) technology are provided only by one mobile network operator servicing 45-51 percent of mobile users, but soon two other mobile network operators will start to provide 4G services," Abbasov said.

The new program is continuation of the state program on developing the ICT sector in Azerbaijan in 2010-2012. The program is aimed to create the e-government, develop methods of management by means of implementing modern information and communication technologies in state bodies, provide e-services, as well as take comprehensive measures to provide simplified and free access of citizens and organizations to such services.

The e-government project, which mostly covers the public sector, is an integral part of the broad "electronic Azerbaijan" idea.

The e-government targets to reduce poverty, promote the population's prosperity and address the issues reflected in the state program on poverty reduction and sustainable development in 2008-2015.

2013 was declared the Year of ICT in Azerbaijan and the ICT University was established under a presidential order on February 2.

Azerbaijan achieved 10.5 percent growth in the ICT sector in the first half of 2013 compared to the same period of last year. In total, some 71.2 million manats have been invested in the domestic ICT sector.