United Nations Public Service Awards Case Studies

Azerbaijan was known as one of the former Soviet Republics with underdeveloped sector of communications and information technologies. Access to the modern information and communication technologies was at very poor level particularly in the regions of the country. After gaining its independence, despite the economic difficulties and invasion, government launched the works aimed at closing the digital divide in the regions. Application of modern communication devices in the whole territory of the country as well as providing access to global informational sources (including Internet access) have created conditions for the exchange of information in all the regions of the country and this process is still going on.
Since technical opportunities are insufficient for the population, the Ministry of Communications and Information Technologies of the Republic of Azerbaijan has started to develop necessary software projects. One of the projects steaming out from that initiative is “Dilmanc”. Within the framework of the mentioned project, in order to simplify receiving of data in Azerbaijani for the users, machine translation systems (MT) were created and works in this direction are still carried out. Alongside with the creation of the machine translation systems automatic speech recognition (ASR), text-to-speech (TTS) through computer, speech-to-speech translation and creation of the other linguistic technologies were shortlisted. At the very moment within the framework of the above-stated project, machine translation systems from Azerbaijani into English, from English into Azerbaijani and from Turkish into Azerbaijani were created and are being widely used. Moreover, software for automatic speech recognition into Azerbaijani and text-to-speech programs were created. As a result of the implemented works, in order to enable translation from Azerbaijani into English and vice versa telephone-translator was produced and exhibited for the first time at the “ITU Telecom World 2009” exhibition which was held in Geneva. UN Secretary General, Mr. Pan Gi-Mun got familiar with the software of the project during the “ITU Telecom World 2009”.

What is the initiative about? (the solution)
As a result of implementation of “Dilmanc” project, access of the citizens to the informational resources as well as possibilities of computer usage has dramatically increased and this process has become simpler. Implemented within the framework of the project machine translation system created wide opportunities for the people to use the information in foreign language and on the other hand enabled usage of the computers in a more rational way (for instance, inserting texts to the computer not by means of keyboard, but by the means of microphone, listening to the texts instead of reading and etc). Namely, due to this reason within the framework of this project, created computer systems are being widely used within Azerbaijan and abroad (Iran, Turkey and other Turkic language countries, Russia and etc). Despite some faults this software has become the most popular national software in Azerbaijan. At the present time downloads from the webpage www.dilmanc.com reach around 400 000. It goes without saying that this software runs absolutely free and can be freely downloaded from the above-stated website. Creation of the automatic speech recognition system is going to simplify the process of computer use and increase the number of computer users. Furthermore, creation of text-to-speech program is going to be an exceptional tool for the citizens of Azerbaijan with reading disabilities

Who proposed the solution, who implemented it and who were the stakeholders?
The project was initiated by the Minister of the Communications and Information Technologies of the Republic of Azerbaijan, Academician Ali M. Abbasov in 2005 and from that time on has been jointly implemented with the UNDP-Azerbaijan. Currently, this project is being carried out within the “National E-Government Network Initiative” project with support of the Ministry of Communications and Information Technologies of the Republic of Azerbaijan. For implementation of all the planned works, under the guidance of Dr. E. Fatullayev a Working Group, consisting of programmers, linguists and other specialists was created and all the R&D works were implemented by the mentioned group. As a result of all the efforts of the group for the first time in Azerbaijan, MT, ASR and TTS systems were created for Azerbaijani language. Creation of these systems prompted other interesting issue – synchronized formal translation; telephone-translator system’s first version was exhibited upon producing. Given the importance of the technologies for the country the Ministry of Communications and Information Technologies of the Republic of Azerbaijan considers continuation of the R&D works as a very important issue. The other positive side of the conducted investigations shown that the creation of formal linguistic technologies enabled establishment of the national school which in its turn immensely contributed to the development of science in Azerbaijan. On the basis of the created formal linguistic technologies several dissertations were defended, articles of the group members were published in around 50 local and international scientific magazines. Works implemented within the framework of this project were reported at the international scientific conferences in France, Germany, Sweden, Poland and Czech Republic. Moreover, created within the framework of “Dilmanc” MT system was exhibited at NATO’s conference on less explored languages in Batumi (Georgia), at “CeBIT” international exhibition in Germany, 2009, at “ITU World Telecom 2009” in Switzerland and at various local and international events.

Describe how and when the initiative was implemented by answering these questions
a. What were the strategies used to implement the initiative? In no more than 500 words, provide a summary of the main objectives and strategies of the initiative, how they were established and by whom.
Azerbaijani language is in the list of less explored languages due to historical reasons. The main goal of the application of the project is ensuring wide usage of Azerbaijani language on the Internet as well as simplification and extension of the use of computers in Azerbaijan. Furthermore, fulfillment of the Presidential Decree on protection and intensive use of the Azerbaijani language in all the areas of the governmental management was the major aim of the project. One of the key objectives of the project can be shown as training of national specialists in this filed.

b. What were the key development and implementation steps and the chronology? No more than 500 words
It is envisaged to carry out the following R&D works within the framework of “Dilmanc”, some of which are already underway: • Machine Translation systems from/into Azerbaijani into/from European languages; • Machine Translation system between Turkic languages; • Automatic Speech Recognition system for Azerbaijani; • Text-To-Speech system for the Azerbaijani texts; • Azerbaijani-English and English-Azerbaijani Speech-to-Speech Translation system; • Telephone-translator. Practical and suitable software packages were created in this direction and works on its improvement are still going on. Creation of this system has resulted in the following progress of the works: • Creation of the formal synthesis and analysis algorithm of the sentence in Azerbaijani for the first time for the MT system; • Establishment of MT system structure from Azerbaijani into other languages and vice versa; • Creation of the dictionaries for the MT systems ( over 250 000 words and phrases); • Speech corps for Automatic Speech Recognition system (voices of over 1500 speakers) an etc.

c. What were the main obstacles encountered? How were they overcome? No more than 500 words
The main impediments on implementation of the project were shortage of the specialists in the field of creation of formal linguistic technologies, Azerbaijani language being one of the less explored languages, shortage of the professional specialists in the field of creation of information technologies, very small Azerbaijani content on the Internet and other factors. In order to eliminate these obstacles serious works were done for staff selection which were followed by trainings and creation of a group of programmers and linguists. On the basis of Azerbaijani traditional grammar, formal grammar was created and used in computerization of the grammar translation. For defining objective laws of the Azerbaijani language, a large body was created from electronic texts (including texts on the Internet) and statistic studies were carried out from the usage of this text bodies. World experience has been applied in this field; members of the project group participated at the various international conferences. But given that Azerbaijani language is very different in terms of its structure, this made the creation of new algorithms and approaches necessary. Results of the researches made the creation of MT, ASR and other technologies possible.

d. What resources were used for the initiative and what were its key benefits? In no more than 500 words, specify what were the financial, technical and human resources’ costs associated with this initiative. Describe how resources were mobilized
Since this project was jointly implemented by the Ministry of Communications and Information Technologies (MCIT) of the Republic of Azerbaijan and UNDP-Azerbaijan and the project was created to meet the requirements of Azeri speaking population in information, the both parties (MCIT and UNDP) have financed the project. As a result of this support, all technical equipment was acquired. Selection of the specialist was conducted in accordance with the UNDP’s requirements through interviews. One of the main directions of the project is training specialist in this filed, for there’s no such training offered in the country. In the field of practical creation of the linguistic technologies, a group of young specialists was created within the framework of the project for the first time in Azerbaijan and this works are still going on.

Is the initiative sustainable and transferable?
Created within the framework of the project “Dilmanc MT” has been widely used in the governmental structures and private organizations for the last years. All incoming letters to the project’s email confirms that there is a big demand for the ASR and TTS systems in Azerbaijani in all governmental and non-governmental structures and that these systems undoubtedly are going to be widely used. The website of “Dilmanc” MT has been bannered on various international software sites and this project is not only used in Azerbaijan, but it is also available for our compatriots all over the world and other Turkic language nations can easily access this program. Created within the project, technologies are universal and can be used for the creation of translation, automatic speech recognition, and text-to speech systems for other foreign languages. All these technologies were demonstrated at the various international conferences and had drawn a huge interest. Project group still gets invitations to participate at the range of scientific conferences. The programs created within the framework of this project were also exhibited at international exhibitions (“ITU Telecom World-2009”, “CeBIT”, “Bakutel” and etc). President of the Republic of Azerbaijan, H.E Ilham Aliyev, UN Secretary General, Pan Gi-Mun, Secretary General of ITU Hamadan Toure and other official representatives are among the high authority representatives, who have familiarized themselves with Dilmanc project.

What are the impact of your initiative and the lessons learned?
Increasing demand for the broad use of the Internet and language-related mobile computer devices (including machine translation, automatic speech recognition, speech-to-speech simultaneous translation, text-to-speech by means of human voice systems and etc) are going to prove the importance of the works to be implemented in the future. Use of such devices allows people to save their time and enhance labor productiveness regardless of the organization. Moreover, creation of such systems enables people with physical disabilities to use computer technologies. Currently, machine translation, automatic speech recognition, text-to-speech systems and other linguistic technologies are getting intensively used worldwide, works on creation of “smart” computers, “smart” homes, installations over speech, robots and development of other intellectual systems are underway all over the world. Technologies, created within the framework of this project are the main components of such systems. These technologies play basic role for the creation of the newest and more complicated intellectual systems and researches on creation of such systems in Azerbaijan.


Institution Name:		Ministry of Communications and Information Technologies
Institution Type:		Government Agency
Contact Person:		Fuad Mushtagov
Title:		Advisor
Telephone/ Fax:		+99412 493 21 52
Institution's / Project's Website:		+99412 598 09 99
E-mail:		international-fm@mincom.gov.az
Address:		33, Zarifa Aliyeva Str
Postal Code:		AZ1000
City:		Baku
State/Province:
Country:		Azerbaijan

The Problem

Solution and Key Benefits

Actors and Stakeholders

(a) Strategies

(b) Implementation

(c) Overcoming Obstacles

(d) Use of Resources

Sustainability and Transferability

Lessons Learned

Contact Information