Highway Africa News Agency

African Commonwealth countries are expected to attend the inaugural meeting of Commonwealth ICT ministers and industry experts taking place in Delhi this week.

The ministers will discuss five key areas of ICT development including policy and regulatory capacity, modernising education and skills development, entrepreneurship for poverty reduction, promoting local access and connectivity, improving regional networking and local content and knowledge.

According to the Chairperson of Commonwealth Connects, Dr Michael Frendo, the meeting is aimed at facilitating the transfer of technology and expertise across the Commonwealth to enhance telecommunications and capitalise on globalisation opportunities for socio-economic and political progress.

There are about sixteen African countries on the Commonwealth. Frendo also said that, "these efforts will support the attainment of the Millennium Development Goals by all Commonwealth countries." The Commonwealth Connects 2007 International e-Partnership Summit, will also bring together 200 industry experts, private sector organisations, government representatives, civil society and key players from organisations such as the World Bank, Intel, Cisco and Vodafone.

Frendo, who is also Malta's Foreign Minister, said Commonwealth Connects is a programme mandated by the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Malta to assist member countries to develop capacity for advancement in ICT software, hardware, infrastructure and human capacity. Malta hosted CHOGM in November 2005. The next CHOGM summit is to be hosted by Uganda in November this year.

"We're bringing together the expertise from parts of the Commonwealth which have it, to other parts of the Commonwealth which need it," Frendo said.

To date, three projects have been established under the Commonwealth Connects programme. The pilot project launched in Sri Lanka last year includes web-based platforms for information exchange, co-ordination and collaboration that complement existing reconstruction efforts in India, Sri Lanka and other countries affected by the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami.

The other two projects involve the provision of radio-based business training for women in Cameroon to help them engage professionally in micro-enterprise, and the distribution of refurbished computers donated by Caribbean governments and citizens to schools and communities within the Caribbean.

Commonwealth Secretary-General Don McKinnon is slated to address the event.

The meeting is jointly organised by the Commonwealth Secretariat, the Commonwealth Business Council and the Government of India with the aim of bridging the deepening digital divide across the 53 countries of the Commonwealth.