CTO chairman's London briefing on CHOGM 2005

representatives from the United Kingdom and Maltese Foreign Ministries, Commonwealth of Learning, COMNET IT, and Commonwealth Business Council were briefed on Friday at a meeting convened in London by the Commonwealth Secretary General.

Anthony De Bono, chairman of the Commonwealth Telecommunications Organisation, gave an overview of how the CTO is preparing itself for the next Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) to be held in Malta next year and the World Summit on the Information Society, also scheduled for 2005, in Tunis. Mr De Bono was accompanied by CTO CEO Dr Ekwow Spio-Garbrah.

"The CTO welcomes this opportunity to contribute to the discussions today about how Commonwealth countries can collaborate in developing and implementing a Programme of Action to bridge the digital divide," Mr De Bono said.

"It is my hope that at the end of our deliberations, we shall arrive at a common understanding of how we can co-operate, to bring relief and socio-economic development to our member countries through the intervention of ICTs."

He briefed those present on what the CTO is and does - a unique, multi-stakeholder organisation that is owned simultaneously by governments, regulators, telephone operating companies and other ICT stakeholder organisations.

As a result of changes in the CTO's constitution in November 2002, the organisation is now more than a Commonwealth organisation (it is able to operate outside the Commonwealth) and more than a telecommunications organisation.

Over the past 20 years, the CTO has devoted considerable attention to capacity-building in the ICT sector, training some 30,000 people in more than 40 countries in various aspects of ICTs.

Having spent more than £60 million during this process, the CTO is estimated to be providing the second-highest quantum of technical assistance to Commonwealth countries, behind the Commonwealth Fund for Technical Co-operation (CFTC).

Over the past year or so, the CTO has widened its areas of intervention considerably, and has begun to tackle some challenging aspects of ICT for development (ICT4D), with a view to bring more accelerated development to Commonwealth countries.

In the area of ICT policy development, the CTO has developed a Road Map for National ICT Planning. In the area of regulatory capacity-building, the CTO continues to offer a wide range of training opportunities and consultancy services to regulators.

For telephone and ICT operating companies, the CTO's revitalised Programme for Development and Training (PDT) and Portfolio of Courses offers scope for considerable capacity building.

To more aggressively bridge the digital divide, the CTO has developed a rural communication initiative called the Tel-Coop. And to assist member countries in the commercialisation of inventions and innovations in ICT, a project along those lines is being established.

To help address the mounting disputes between policy makers and regulators, and between regulators and operating companies in member countries, the CTO is creating an Alternate Dispute resolution mechanism. And to better harness all the strengths and skills of ICT professionals in the Commonwealth, the CTO is in the process for building a Commonwealth ICT professionals' database.

The CTO's new remit permits it to engage in such unusual commercial operations as an innovative application of ICTs to the maritime industry, known as the Sea Gateway project, where the CTO is collaborating with Inmarsat, the IMO, Lloyd's of London and other US and France-based software engineers to adapt advances in the use of ICTs in building and industrial monitoring and controls onto the open seas.

These new developments at the CTO - aimed at using ICTs to bring more comprehensive solutions to the needs of member countries - have been possible in the past year, as a result of some significant developments in the CTO.

In response to the demands of its member institutions, and in light of the changes in the CTO constitution, the CTO Council decided in 2003 to recruit a new CEO, Dr Spio-Garbrah, who could bring knowledge from the worlds of ICT policy, regulation and operations to propel the CTO to the next level.

"As some of you may know, our new CEO, therefore, is a man who has been a Minister of Communications, chairman of Ghana's ICT regulatory agency, and has had prior experience working for two US telephone companies, SBC (Southwestern Bell Corporation) and NyNex (New York New England Telephone company)," Mr De Bono said.

"Additionally, he has been an Ambassador to the United States and an official of the World Bank Group and the African Development Bank, bringing therefore also to the CTO the perspective of funding agencies.

"Under Dr Spio-Garbrah's leadership, we have seen new possibilities for the CTO to make significant contributions to our member countries.

We are pleased therefore to be here to contribute to this discussion about how Commonwealth institutions can help bridge the digital divide. Hopefully, as you can see, the CTO is already doing a lot, and we look forward to doing even more with your co-operation."

An ICT Commonwealth Ministers' Meeting and other stakeholders hailing from civil society is expected to take place in Malta next June specifically to review the Commonwealth Action Plan for the Digital Divide.

During his stay in the UK Mr De Bono met Lord David Currie, chairman of OFCOM (Office of Communications of the UK), with whom he discussed a closer partnership between the two organisations, and payed a courtesy calls on Malta's High Commissioner, Dr George Bonello DuPuis, and Adrian Bedford of the Commonwealth Co-ordination Team at the UK Ministry of Foreign and Commonwealth Office.