Turkmenistan hosts NATO-sponsored Internet meeting

ITAR-TASS news agency, Moscow
14 May 04

Asgabat, 14 May: A meeting of the consultants of NATO’s Virtual Silk
Road project was opened in the Turkmen capital today.

Participants, researchers and experts from five Central Asian countries
– Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan,
and also from Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan, together with NATO
representatives – are discussing swift access to the world-wide
Internet network.

According to the Turkmen Communications Ministry, within the framework
of the Virtual Silk Road project, three of Turkmenistan’s largest
higher educational establishments, Magtymguly State University, the
Polytechnic Institute and the Transport and Communication Institute,
have been connected simultaneously to the Internet this year. Thus
they have obtained access to the news on discoveries and inventions
as well as on trends in world scientific developments.

Last year, Turkmentelekom state company installed a satellite dish and
also assembled a ground station. This receives information from the
Internet and transfers it to the country’s research and educational
centres via local network systems.