Digital age, globalization: Ensuring economic rights in the new information society

One of the essential factors for accelerating the process of global information society formation is the economic development. On the one hand, poor economic development, namely the scare of financial resources, impedes the process of informatization. Needless to say, that the informatization is the organizational social-economic and scientific-technical process of creation of optimal conditions for ensuring corresponding rights and meeting the needs of citizens, state power bodies, municipal organizations and all forms of entities and organizations notwithstanding their legal institutional framework or types of ownership by formation, providing and using information resources. 
On the other hand, it is complicated to achieve the desired progress while there is no induced economic interest among the members of the society. Bearing this in mind, governments in the process of maintaining the information society provide favorable conditions for securing economic rights. As a result, such kind of initiatives brought to the limelight such definitions as following: "digital economy", "information economy", "electronic commerce”, etc. The set of initiatives undertaken at the international and national levels creates the optimal environment for overcoming digital inequality and ensuring the economic rights in the global information society. In this article, the above-mentioned issues are considered from legal and economic perspectives.

Certainly, for reaching all mentioned purposes interested parties must show solidarity at national and international levels. If there are no solidarity, partnership, and cooperation, it isn't possible to provide the development of information society. Therefore, by asserting this, the Declaration of Principles states the following principle of "The role of governments and all stakeholders in the promotion of ICTs for development". Similarly, the principle of regional and international cooperation has been highlighted: "Building a people-centered Information Society is a joint effort which requires cooperation and partnership among all stakeholders". 5 By following this principle, it would be possible to overcome global discrepancies, which exist among states. Paragraph 60 under the Declaration of Principles asserts that open international and regional cooperation on building global information society should be developed and national legal regulations should be elaborated correspondingly. It is hard to form a global information society without maintaining international cooperation. As an indicator of the implementation of this principle, one can mention the fact that states from different regional affiliations sign mutual treaties and various initiatives on the development of ICTs are undertaken.
The issue of ICTs which is playing a key role in economic development, as well as the matter of combating effectively security threats which emerged as a result of ICTs usage, have been emphasized in the "Tunis Commitment" adopted at the Tunis Summit (November 15, 2005). Furthermore, an obligation on conducting ap propriate monitoring and evaluation for determining the level of development of Information society and for overcoming digital inequality has been undertaken. Following issues, among others, have been stated in the "Tunis Agenda for the Information Society": development of financial mechanisms for bridging the digital divide, pro viding special attention to the Internet governance and related issues. 6 Therefore, all participants for providing ac cess to the information emphasized the significance of cooperation and expressed their strong belief in fulfillment of all undertaken commitments. Generally, identifying such kinds of commitments contributes to securing economic rights.
It is noteworthy to say that it is viable to increase the number of international documents. Thus, whilst the process of building global information society is ongoing, new ways of securing economic rights emerge and this, in its turn, boosts the interest to provide legal regulation of the economic relationships. Moreover, many international norms, which are aimed at furthering the third generation human rights, emphasize the significance of economic development. For instance, in the Declaration on the Right to Development adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1986, the right on development, which also predetermines economic development, has been recognized as an inalienable right. 7

Foreign practice on building information society and securing economic rights
One can detect three development models for building information society: the Continental European model (Western, Eastern, Central, Northern, and Southern European countries); the Anglo-American model (the USA, Canada, Great Britain); the Asian model (Japan, the Asian Tigers, India, etc.).
All countries, which belong to the above-mentioned development models, including developing countries, obtain a high level of information society development. Nevertheless, development of information society occurs more rapidly in the countries from the Continental European and Anglo-American models of development. The peculiarity of this case is connected with the fact the development of information society is taking place along with the advancement of human rights and freedoms. Thus, within the idea of the global information society, not only the rights in the sphere of information but also all human rights and freedoms became adjusted to a new condition. One of the main features that distinguish Western countries is the development of economic rights by adjusting to the demands of the newly emerging society. This can be considered as a sustainable experience, owing to the fact that the development of the information economy is one of the milestones in the process of information society building. Furthermore, it is considered proper and expedient to turn citizens into active citizens by evoking economic interest among the population. For providing for everyone an access to usage of teleworking, various organizational forms of distant labor relationships are applied: places of collective usage for conducting teleworking (telecentres); 8 telecottages; 9 televillages. 10 Moreover, within the Program "e-Europe" the priorities were specified, among which most of the priorities were directed toward promoting economic interest in the information society: cheaper and fast Internet access; employment in the knowledge-based economy; universal participation in the knowledge-based economy; accelerating e-commerce, etc. 11 In general, the essential feature that characterizes the European model is the development of regional integration. On that account, in the aftermath of World War II the countries of Western Europe, which were suffering the economic crisis, came to a decision to initiate economic and political unification. More than fifty years from then on, Western Europe sets an example of the equal and mutually beneficial type of integration. European integration is not only political, economic, cultural, technical-scientific rapprochement, but it also predetermines the mutual cooperation in the realm of information.
In the Anglo-American development model, great importance has been attached to the issue of carrying out informatization processes within the economic context. Certainly, that is not out of pure coincidence that the economic theory on information society has been developed in the USA. In a theory, which is connected with a name of a renowned American economist -Fritz Machlup 12 (1902-1983, the development of the information economy was placed in a forefront and substantiated. In America, the "knowledge-based economy" was for the first time introduced by Fritz Machlup in 1962, by relating to the notion of information industry such realms as education, law, publishing, mass media and the production of computers. By the same token, the attempt was undertaken to determine the economic cost of these areas. Afterward, all these theoretical knowledge was applied in practice. In the eighties 3 %, 20 %, 30 % of the population was working in the areas such as agriculture, industry, providing of services, correspondingly: 49 % of the population in the USA was engaged in the production of mechanisms of information processing. In the USA, a country which is distinguished with speedy economic development the number of expenditures allocated to informatization processes (producing, processing and applying information, developing databases of various levels of information networks and systems) overrates country's military expenses. Nowadays high level of country's development is a sound evidence of a successful policy of investing in the area of informatization.
In the Anglo-American model, Canada is characterized by a peculiar approach to the issue. In 1994 the Department of Industry of Canada released a report with a title "Building a more innovative economy", 13 where the issues on the usage of information technologies for achievement economic and social purposes were elaborated. Basically, the report at hand came up with the proposal to carry out the transition to the information society and knowledge economy through the support of Canadian infobahn. 14 Though from the above-mentioned information one could infer that there is no developed country presented in the Asian model. Japan, which represents this type of development, is one of the countries where the process of information society building was initiated for the first time. By the same token, such countries as China, India, and other states have been recently demonstrating dynamic development in this sphere. One can come to a conclusion that due to the experience and to the information provided by the international reports, ensuring and protection of human rights are conducted more efficiently in the countries from Continental European and Anglo-American models.
At the end of the 20 th centuries United States Secretary of State J. M. Hay while holding a speech about the plans of the country mentioned: "The Mediterranean sea is the ocean of the past, The Atlantic ocean is the ocean of the present, the Pacific Ocean -is the ocean of the future". 15 But in fact, if in the 20 th century the majority of the Western countries were active participants in the managing world political processes, since the end of the century China, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and other countries from the Asia-Pacific region have a significant influence on the destiny of the modern world.
Japan, "Asian tigers", India and CIS countries 16 can be included in the Asian model. South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore and Hong Kong (China) are named as "Asian tigers". Economic development of these countries provided an opportunity to invest considerably in the application of ICTs in the region.
With reference to the Asian development model, one should emphasize the E-economy (digital economy) of Japan. One of the main purposes of the E-Strategy of Japan was to overcome the information inequality in the country. To that end, the Ministries of Japan were also engaged in the process. The strategy for the purpose of the building ideal information society sets as an essential factor the exchange of knowledge among the population and, bearing this in mind, it established three goals to be fulfilled: Firstly, in order to provide each individual with an open access to the exchange of information without any geographical, physical and economic restrictions, the information literacy level of the population should be increased.
Secondly, sustainable implementation of the reforms, which foster free competition and are directed to building an efficient economic system should be carried out.
Thirdly, citizens should actively participate in the global circulation of knowledge and information, and that, in its turn, will expand the activity of Japan as "knowledge-emergent society" on a global arena. Thus, in order to fulfill these conditions, the strategy should cover the following areas: education; arts and science; medical and nur sing care; work; industry; environment; living; transportation and traffic; social participation; public administration. 17 Evidently, the Japanese Strategy provided directly building of the knowledge-based information economy. Today the e-Japan Strategy achieved all its goals and fulfilled the obligations.
The term tiger economy was coined to describe such countries as South Korea, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Taiwan, which are characterized by a high level of economic and social development. Here, priority was given to developing the centralized model of the information society. This means that informatization in these countries occurs as a top-down process. Precisely, this type of management is preconditioned by special authority of the state bodies. This peculiarity can be explained by the fact that the governmental management in Asian countries is built on old patterns.
Chinese state policy in the realm of information bears distinguishing characteristic, which is its orientation toward overcoming digital inequality. Thus, during the initial period, the digital inequality in China was preconditioned by such factors as a low level of income for dealing with economic problems, failure in achieving goals of entrepreneurship due to the unprofessionalism of the national labor force. For the purpose of overcoming these obstacles, as a result of encouraging foreign investment, the national labor force has been hired by foreign companies and technical issues have been resolved. As a result, the level of information literacy has been increased. Consequently, China favored resolving existing problems by reconciling primarily the economic problems of the country.
Regarding CIS countries, one should mention that the initial period of the independence of these countries was marked by the existence of the gaps and inconsistency in their legislative framework, which was the main obstacles for the development of human rights and freedoms in the region. Gradually, the improvement of the legislative framework, the attraction of foreign investments, etc. stimulated the development of information society and the regulation of the economy in the region. Currently, most of the CIS countries, including the Republic of Azerbaijan, are proceeding rapidly in the informatization.

Economic inequality and social relationship
Civil society presents by itself a total of non-governmental economic, political, social, moral, cultural, religious, national and family relationships, the legal restriction of the arbitrary regulation and direct interference on the part of the state in the activity of free citizens and organizations. The existence of the civil society is plausible only in the case when the relationships emerge in a state of realizing creative talents and abilities in all areas of social relationships, including economic, political, and cultural spheres. In brief, in a civil society, the state is functioning for the benefits of the society, not the other way around. Assuming that the state conducts its information policy without taking into account the needs and interests of the citizens, then, consequently, one can announce such a policy as a failure. In this regard, it would be appropriate to highlight cyber-optimist and cyber-pessimist approaches introduced by Ronald Maynard, the Director of the Friedrich Naumann Foundation's Regional Office for the Middle East and North Africa. According to R. Maynard, cyber-optimists believe that the development of ICT has a positive impact on the advancement of the civil society. As a consequence of the affordability of the information and the knowledge, equal access to participation in all spheres for all members of the civil society will be provided. Advancement in the application of ICTs will also precondition the development of the democratic elements in the country.
Conversely, cyber-optimists hold the opposite point of view and assert that the Internet carries a negative effect. According to their view, the Internet will cause the growing divide between rich and poor and between a part of the population who is actively engaged in the political life of the country and others who refrain from active participation. Proponents of this position seek to support their standpoint by statistical data: thus, according to the data provided by OECD (The Organization for Economic Development and Cooperation) at the beginning of the 21 st century, daily internet usage rate for the US population consists of 54,3 %, whereas in Africa the indicator showed 0,4 %. Furthermore, the hegemony of the developed countries becomes more apparent by the fact that English is the language widely used in the cyber-space. 18 Indeed, cyber-pessimists' approach to the issue cannot be ignored. There is no denying that digital inequality flourishes nowadays. However, the causes of this inequality are not rooted in the development and application of ICT. Digital inequality originated from the discrepancies existing in the traditional societies and their brutal and biased laws. Contrariwise, the process of the development of information society and the application of ICTs sets as a goal the overcoming this inequality. Moreover, it is no coincidence that in the reports of UNESCO, it was stated that the building of knowledge society, as well as the preservation of cultural heritage and linguistic diversity, could be provided by securing equal access to the usage of ICTs. 19 By the same token, in the Declaration of Principles for the purpose of the development, the principle of cooperation of state bodies and other stakeholders in the sphere of the application of ICTs acknowledges civil society as a stakeholder in this process. 20 On the other hand, the positive impact of ICTs on the elements of the civil society is undeniable. For the most part, the process of informatization results in the increase of the citizens' activity. To cite an instance, by introducing e-voting system, the voter turnout can be increased.
Therefore, the advancement of social relationship is directly connected with the economic development and their reciprocal influence is a characteristic that should be underlined. This is why some researchers bring to the limelight the processes that are taking place in the traditional societies and emphasize the existing class differences' influence on the information market. 21 Other scholars, on their turn, while drawing attention to the economic factors consider them in conjunction with the social aspects. Thus, depending on the social-economic discrepancies, it is stated that the opportunities for the world population to use ICTs vary and three groups are emphasized respectively: -Information-Rich. This group has an unlimited access to the usage of ICTs. Moreover, they greatly influence the development of ICTs. This group consists of the developed nations and the transnational financial corporations.
-Middle Information Class. They actively benefit from the opportunities created by ICTs. Generally, this group's representatives have a high level of information literacy. Notwithstanding the fact, that they are not directly engaged in the process of creating and developing ICT, these people are active users of ICTs.
-Information Poor. They are represented by the low-income population and, thereby, are deprived of the access to the usage of ICTs. Furthermore, this group is characterized by a total absence of the information cultural awareness among its representatives. 22 A social state is a new form and the highest level of the "citizen-society-state" relationship. Here, the priority is given to the undertaking projects for the sake of every citizen's and his/her family members' life and prosperity, and necessary conditions are created for realizing citizens' talents and potential in the legal and economic realms. Social state secures its citizens' economic, social, legal and cultural rights and strives for reducing the social inequality. One should not lose sight of the fact that the social inequality is one of the aspects that cause the digital inequality. Therefore, the advancement of social state requires an overall solution to the problems faced in the sphere of information, including securing information rights. On the other hand, one should mention that the development of the information society boosts the social transformation. Social transformation means the process of conversion of the social systems and the institutes from one form to another. In the information society, the process of social transformation covers the advancement of ICTs along with the human development that is compatible with the new system. Thus, in the global information society, the social state model is developing in tune with the existing pace. The perspectives of the development of the social state model in the Republic of Azerbaijan, which is implementing its state policy according to the principle "tempora mutantur et nos mutamur in illis" 23 , are evident. Certainly, it is not out of pure coincidence that these perspectives, along with the main directions, were emphasized in the Development Concept "Azerbaijan 2020: A look into The Future". 24

The economic aspects of building the global information society
This is the development concept that is provided for this kind of prognosis for the information society with developing information economy and, here, the importance of ICTs in the development of all significant areas has been spotlighted. The information economy covers three main directions: First, this is the area of traditional knowledge and information (scientific research, education, mass media, various consultation services, etc.); The second direction of the information economy manifests itself in the process of informatization of the traditional production and the service industry.
The third direction is considered as a boosting force of the information economy and it covers the spheres of production and use of ICTs.
Already at the beginning of the 20 th century, at the time of the initial formation of the information society, most scholars were taking attempts to explain this phenomenon from the economic perspective. For instance, one cannot come across with the definition "information society" in the works of the American scientist Manuel Castells (1942). 25 From his perspective, all societies used information and, therefore, all of them can be considered as the information societies. He called this new type of society as a "network society". Thus, in his multivolume work "The information age: economy, society, and culture", the author speaks about the holistic network that connects people, organization and states to each other, and owing to such kind of ideas, Castells is considered as one of the scholars who brought to the limelight the conceptual thoughts about the cyberspace. In his opinion, such qualities as expeditiousness and agility by penetrating all areas of human life necessitate the transition to the network type of the social structure: the network system in the economy, interactive political system, Internet -the single global information network. As can be seen from the above-mentioned, M. Castells, by emphasizing the transition to the new economic system through the development of the network society, analyzes the system both from the intra-State and international perspectives.
Peter Drucker (1909Drucker ( -2005, in contrast to M. Castells, in his book "Post-Capitalist Society" states that the society that is based on capital, land and physical labor steps in the transition process to the more developed form of society, namely the information society. He provides an incisive analysis where he considers the opportunity of directly influencing the economic system of the society and arranging a continuous functioning of the system. From Drucker's point of view, in comparison with the industrial society, in the information society fabrication and use of intellect and knowledge outweigh the production and consumption of material goods. Therefore, by acquiring the necessary knowledge one can easily obtain traditional production supplies (land, labor power, capital). 26 Here, one would like to emphasize the approach to the issue offered by a Canadian scientist, Don Tapscott (1947), 27 whose profound insights on analyzing information society from the economic perspective and specifying characteristics of the information society were reflected in his work "The Digital Economy" (1999). The following characteristics put forward by D. Tapscott allow analyzing the information society from an economic perspective: knowledge; 28 digitalization; 29 virtualization; 30 molecularization; 31 integration/Internetworking; 32 disintermediation; 33 convergence; 34 innovation; 35 presumption; 36 immediacy; 37 globalization; 38 discordance. 39 Bearing in mind that building of the information society necessitates the active participation of the members of this society, the scope of the definition "e-citizen" is progressively extending. At the initial time, the term "e-citizen" was only applied with reference to the uses of the Internet. However, nowadays this term obtains wide content and covers nine elements, 40 one of which is the digital commerce. Digital commerce describes the digital sale and purchase of products. E-citizen by being aware of the advantages of digital purchase and by being acquainted with the legal aspects of the digital sale should be able to become a consumer in the e-economy. Naturally, every citizen wouldn't mind enhancing her/his range of interests by adding benefits from receiving the required purchase directly at his/her house without needing to travel abroad or even to visit the nearest store.
Nevertheless, it is evident from the elements of the e-citizenship elucidated above, that in line with tradition, the differentiation among civil, political, economic, social, cultural rights and freedoms is ongoing in the information society. Therefore, global information society building defines the pace of development of human rights and freedoms according to the necessities of the age. For instance, the impact of electronization has caused changes in the realization of labor rights. Usage of electronic information systems provides the conducive environment for everyone to obtain information regarding one's labor activity. Moreover, innovations that are taking place in modern society encourage the development of labor relations in the form of remote labor relationship. In the remote labor relations, execution of work and delivery of outputs are occurring by ICT application, especially with the usage of computer networks and Internet technology. Thus, in the remote labor relationship an employer and an employee can be distant from each other, hundreds of kilometers apart. In this case, the Internet carries a function of intermediary for delivering outputs. Furthermore, payment transfer between an employee (customer) and an employer (contractor) is carried out via bank transfer, post office or other means of electronic payment.
Here is another example: securing the realization of such important right as a right to entrepreneurship is developing according to a new condition and the process itself specifies such terms as electronic commerce (e-commerce) 41 , e-commerce participants. 42 Use of modern ICTs gives an opportunity to everyone who is realizing one's economic rights to gain easily and sound some profit and to meet effectively their consumers' needs.
Furthermore, the advancement of other human rights and freedoms fosters the development of the economic structure. To cite an instance, considering that the basis of human development is one's sound health, this, in its turn, can't be provided without securing a clean environment. For precisely that reason, there are not only individual rights but also various states/nations have declared their collective right to live in a healthy environment and these types of rights are recognized as the third-generation human rights 43 . That caused advent of new tendencies and initiatives ("green industry" "green way of life", "green consumption", "green behavior") that are primarily aimed at development of "green economy" 44 the sustainable development program that is rooted in human potential and encompasses events that set as a target securing protection of environment all over the world. It appears that abovementioned issues emphasize the significance of the right to access information about the environment and necessitate the regulation of and securing this right by a specific legal act. Therefore, the Law of the Republic of Azerbaijan "On obtaining environmental information" (issued March 12, 2002) regulates relations on obtaining accurate, reliable and complete information on the condition of the environment and the use of natural resources from state bodies, local governments and officials who are in charge of the issue.
The aforementioned aspects once again underscore the significance of economic factors and their essential input to the advancement of the information society.

Economic and digital inequality as an impediment to the realization of economic rights
Although the last information revolution initiated the development of the information society, the problems that were pertinent to the traditional society were also inherited by the information society. As previous relations are acquiring their new form in the information society, this has to lead to outpouring the same problems from much more different context. Therefore, analyzing digital inequality only from the perspective of the development of ICTs may result in a one-sided approach to the issue. In fact, the mechanisms of overcoming digital inequality must serve a dual function. On the one hand, existing social, economic, political, cultural contradictions should be reconciled. On the other hand, the development of ICT should be fostered. Here, it would be pertinent to mention the analogy to the "Janus-concept" 45 that was offered by the authors. 46 This analogy that was drawn in reference to the development of legislation on information, can also be applied for describing the current condition of the global information society. It, in its turn, produces a vivid impression of a transitory character of the present condition. It is evident that conquering digital inequality is unattainable without the development of ICT. And moreover, the aspects, which hold up the advancement of ICT, also predetermine the existing digital inequality. Furthermore, by benefiting from uses of ICTs one can resolve a plethora amount of social, economic, political and cultural problems. Consequently, initiatives undertaken in both directions provide ensuring human rights and freedoms. Thus, the main and essential task of overcoming digital inequality is securing the right to equality. The Universal Declaration on Human Rights (1948) declares that every human being is born equal and free in dignity and rights. Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, color, sex, language, religion, political or another opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or another status. Furthermore, no distinction shall be made on the basis of the political, jurisdictional or international status of the country or territory to which a person belongs, whether it be independent, trust, non-self-governing or under any other limitation of sovereignty. 47 The right to equality is one of the essential human rights and freedoms; in most cases securing this right creates the necessary conditions for efficient realization of all other rights. That is not out of pure coincidence, that in the United Nations Millennium Declaration (September 8, 2000) "the equality" has been considered among other fundamental values that are announced to be essential to international relations in the twenty-first century. Thereby, it was declared as an obligation to address global challenges in accordance with the basic principles of equity and social justice. 48 Thus, the prevalence of digital inequality in a society is a direct breach of the human right to equality. Therefore, addressing this problem provides a guarantee for securing human rights and freedoms.
In this way, existing economic inequality is one of the factors that preconditions digital discrepancy, and by the same token, it is the main impediment to the realization of economic rights in the newly created environment. For defeating this obstacle, relevant measures both at the international and intra-state levels should be undertaken:

Development of information economy in the Republic of Azerbaijan: legal, technical and organizational initiatives
Owing to the fact that the policy of the economic encouragement is indispensable for furthering any development, in any new environment one shouldn't disregard considering the economic issues. In the opposite case, the goals set would become unattainable. Bearing this in mind, one should emphasize the following directions of the state policy in the realm of information: -Supporting the development of all types of property ownership on information supply, information systems and technologies and the means of ensuring as well as the advancement of marketing information products and ser vices.
-Preventing and prohibiting monopolization and any attempt at unfair competition in the information products and services market by the subjects of information relations, including foreign subjects.
Development of the sphere of information subjects to the availability of free market competition. To fulfill that objective, "National Information and Communication Technologies Strategy for the Development of the Republic of Azerbaijan" (2003-2012) emphasizes the significance and necessity of undertaking following initiatives in the realm of electron economy: creating favorable conditions for extensive practice of electron payment and electron trading; providing conducive environment for advancement of the sphere of information services; encouraging broad application of ICTs in the government and private sectors of economy; providing required conditions for securing transition to knowledge-based economy. 49 Similar directions are spotlighted in "National Strategy on the development of information society in the Republic of Azerbaijan" (2014-2020). Furthermore, in the Strategy, the current situation in the country in the area of information has been described. According to the Strategy, as a consequence of the work performed in the realm of ICT development, the country had taken a number of important steps in the spheres of improving the quality of the information products and service, increasing the efficiency in the various areas of economy, developing the information and knowledge market, evolving new types of social and economic activities (e-government, e-trade, remote education and etc.) and in the sphere of furthering integration of the country into global cyberspace. Moreover, it was proclaimed that this area is of particular importance to the State and it is one of the priorities for the future development of the country. These new entities will provide organizational and financial support to creative initiatives (start-ups), the expansion of ICTs production in the country, the attraction of foreign investments and, overall, with the assistance of these institutions the economy of Azerbaijan will be strengthened.
Legal technical organizational and economic methods of modern information management and security policy of Azerbaijan were provided. Legal methods encompass the process of preparation and adoption of normative legal acts on information management and security and laws and regulations on information relationship management. Organizational and technical methods include identification of programs and mechanisms that interfere with the normal functioning of information telecommunication systems. Economic methods are connected with undertaking economic initiatives in the information sphere support and security and allocating budget to support these actions. 51 One should also elucidate the active participation of Azerbaijan in the area of international ICT Conference on the "Digital Divide and Knowledge Economy" was held in Baku (Azerbaijan) in November 2004 and, as a consequence, Baku Declaration on the Digital Divide and Knowledge Economy were adopted. The declaration states that the future of Eurasia depends on its activity policy that can bridge the digital divide and provide a transition to the knowledge-based economy. This policy should secure that the opportunities generated by the knowledge-based economy will be open and available to everyone as well as it should guarantee the safety, soundness, and sustainability of the information infrastructure. 52 One should state the fact that the particular attention in the national law should be devoted to arranging initiatives on the encouragement of the population. Due to the stimulating initiatives, generating interest to the usage of ICTs among all walks of life becomes viable. Therefore, it seems more feasible to draw up a list of various general and specific activities directed at overcoming digital inequality among individuals. Undertaken diverse initiatives, among which are broadening promotion of ICTs in the business sector of the country; developing internet, including electron trading; supporting startup projects, specialized in the realm of ICTs and high tech; providing assistance to small and medium entrepreneurs in applying ICTs while carrying out their business activity -all of these promote interest to ICTs among population. Moreover, a considerable progress that has been made in this sphere can be confidently supported by statistical data. 53 The information in the economic sphere is of a particular significance for the country and it is reflected in the Article 5 of the Law of the Republic of Azerbaijan "On the State Secret" (September 7, 2004), where among information that is classified as a state secret information in the economic sphere is also stated. Dissemination of this information, as well as breach of official secrets connected with other areas, can harm the state economy. Economic harm can bear direct and indirect character. For instance, as a result of the dissemination of military information the systems that were providing state security become inefficient and building them from scratch must bring enormous expenditures. This inflicted harm can be considered as a direct harm. On the other hand, the indirect type of harm can be caused by the breach of state secret, as a consequence of which, parties to the previously signed mutual contracts can lose their confidence and terminate the contract, which, otherwise, could have generated huge revenues.
8. Conclusion 8.1. Since the building of the information society generally presupposes active participation of all members of the society in the process of informatization, securing basic human rights and freedoms is the guiding principle of this initiative. There is no denying, that every economically disadvantaged individual cannot take a proactive stance. That is because individual takes advantage of new opportunities, primarily, in order to increase the sources of one's income. From this perspective, the information economy presents by itself one of the research objects of the information law. A member of society, who realizes what kind of benefits is attainable in the information society, gives one's preferences to economic interests. The fact, that these interests bear legitimate character, is considered an essential factor in the realization of economic rights. Bearing this in mind, one can assert that it is advisable to analyze the issues connected with the information economy within the subject "Information Law".
8.2. The proposition that has been put forward is that in the domestic law particular emphasize should be placed on organizing events for encouraging population. Evidently, encouraging initiatives stimulate interest to ICTs among all population. Therefore, it seems more pertinent to proceed with the organization of general and specific activities directed at fighting digital inequality among individuals. Undertaken diverse initiatives, among which are broadening promotion of ICTs in the business sector of the country; developing internet, including e-commerce; supporting startup projects, specialized in the realm of ICTs and high tech; providing assistance to small and medium entrepreneurs in applying ICTs while carrying out their business activity -all of these promote interest to ICTs among population. Precisely this policy can be claimed as a cause of increasing number of citizens who are engaged via various social networks in purchases and sales relationship, and they are also providing and receiving other commercial services. Although some legal acts have been adopted to regulate e-commerce, there are still remained problems and tax evasion cases are predominant. With reference to this matter, it is advisable to conduct periodic monitoring of the activity of e-trading subjects. This practice can be applicable in Azerbaijan as well as in all other countries.
8.3. Certainly, both international and national laws can provide the citizen with a plethora amount of economic rights. However, presuming that a citizen doesn't have skills to realize these rights and freedoms, it would be, after all, impossible to achieve efficient outcomes. This unskillfulness, in its turn, is rooted in economic inequality. To give an instance, a state provides favorable conditions for e-commerce and this, in its turn, means unhindered realization of the right to free entrepreneurship. Nonetheless, due to the divergence of the population from a social perspective, some citizens are unaware of the provided condition and these created opportunities remain unfulfilled. As a consequence, all such cases characterize the economic condition of the state from the negative perspective. Taking into consideration all the above-mentioned, the initiatives should be undertaken to provide inculcation of the positive aspects of the information economy in the citizens. It is also significant from their early age to provide children in secondary schools with the knowledge of different aspects of the information economy. Since in comparison with the practice of educating the elderly population, realization such type of initiatives with youth and children can deliver better outcomes. One can also claim that this policy can prevent legal violations in the information economy. For instance, if a prospective subject of e-commerce will be informed beforehand to avoid cases of tax evasions, this, in its turn, can reduce the rate of delinquency.
Moreover, one should emphasize that use of ICTs by almost all members of a society precondition providing information on ICTs. However, not all the population is educated. Consequently, preparation of TV programs that only cover the issues on information society, information economy, and electronic government can be considered inefficient. From this end, it would be pertinent to give attention to individual peculiarities. Thus, in TV programs and radio broadcasts that differ according to the range of interests of different segments of society, by indirect and non-intrusive methods, one can transmit corresponding information and, thus, one can promote interest to the area of information among the population. Here, one should also bear in mind, that members of the society use different forms of mass media. Therefore, means of influence should not only be restricted to TV and radio. It will deliver results that are more efficient if the whole range of broadcasting forms will be covered. For this reason, in National Strategies public education and use of telework were set as priorities that should be considered from the first moment of emergence of the information society. Here, special attention was given to promoting interest to ICTs among the old generation. International experience in this area, for example, downloading the special application to mobile phones as well as establishing education centers with the purpose of inculcation of computer knowledge (Universities of the Third Age) can be applied in the country and these prospective projects promise to grant efficient outcomes. Consequently, it is feasible to benefit from the practical experience of the elderly population and to apply these skills according to the needs of a new environment.
One can conclude, that only in case of high economic development, it is feasible to fulfill all aims and tasks that were set for information society building. For this reason, in order to achieve these goals the action plan of legal, technical and organizational initiatives undertaken at international and national levels prescribes an activity that is aimed at the realization of the goals set. Here, it would be appropriate to finish the article with the quote from the Development Concept "Azerbaijan 2020: A Look into the Future": "With the gradual intensification of innovative activity at a qualitatively new level in conditions of globalization, the pace of change in economic processes all over world, copying of innovations and their application in the sphere of production are increasing in an unprecedented manner. This, in fact, is the "positively charged" effect of globalization and it gradually allows an increasing number of countries to benefit from achievements in the sphere of innovations, advanced technical standards and new methods in management. According to predictions, world economic growth in the short-and medium-term will take place precisely as a result of this factor". 54