Commonwealth technology ministers are to meet biennially to discuss how technology can make a difference to development, governance and society in general.
The decision to set up the forum was made at the start of 2014 when Commonwealth Secretary-General Kamalesh Sharma met with Trinidad and Tobago’s Minister of Science and Technology, Rupert Griffith.
“Technology Ministers together are best able to identify the ways in which to collaborate most effectively and to co-ordinate political action on priority concerns, from cyber crime to accessing technology in remote locations,” said Sharma.
“In particular, they will be able to consider how to advance the Commonwealth Broadband Initiative, agreed at the last Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting and aimed at ensuring no member country is without a national broadband development policy.”
The new initiatives follow in the steps of an ICT steering committee that was set up in 2005, chaired by Griffith, to promote ICT-for-development and fund ICT projects throughout the 53 member countries.
