Foreign Minister Michael Frendo chaired the second meeting of the Steering Committee of the Commonwealth Action Programme on the Digital Divide (CAPDD) at Marlborough House in London.

Mozambique and Trinidad & Tobago joined Malta and India with financial contributions to the CAPDD Fund which was set up at the Malta CHOGM last November. Trinidad & Tobago and Mozambique have added contributions of $100,000 and $30,000 respectively to the contributions of E110,000 and E1,000,000 by Malta and India.

The commitment to the CAPDD programme has strongly increased inside the Commonwealth since Commonwealth Secretary General Don McKinnon appointed Dr Frendo to head the CAPDD Steering Committee set up for the first time in line with the decision of Heads of State and Government at CHOGM in Malta last November.

The committee has met twice since its launching last March and has had a virtual on-line meeting in between the two meetings. A soft launch of CAPDD will take place in the first week of August of this year in London, UK and a Partnership Summit is scheduled in Delhi, India in the last quarter of this year. There is governmental commitment and increased private sector interest in the Commonwealth-wide project spanning over 53 countries in five continents.

CAPDD aims to bridge the digital divide in the Commonwealth putting the expertise and experience of ICT-advanced Commonwealth countries to the service of other Commonwealth countries with specific projects aimed at a wide span of beneficiaries. The new logo of CAPDD is expected to adopt as a slogan the Malta CHOGM name “Networking the Commonwealth for Development”.

The Steering Committee includes representatives from Commonwealth countries, Commonwealth agencies and the deputy secretary general of the Commonwealth Winston Cox.

The first meeting was co-chaired by the Commonwealth secretary general Don McKinnon and Dr Frendo.