By Makane Faye, 20 April 2006

On behalf of member states and stakeholders, ECA presented over 80 project proposals to experts ahead of a meeting of African ICT ministers in Egypt .

The presentation focused on implementation of the African Regional Action Plan on the Knowledge Economy (ARAPKE) which has been adopted by the African Union as Africa 's roadmap on ICT for development over the next 10 years.

ECA's presentation listed 89 project proposals at a cost of over 8 million euros. ECA proposed convening a Resource Mobilization Conference to discuss funding and implementation of the proposals and made recommendations on follow up and evaluation mechanisms.

At the opening of the ministerial conference, various speakers congratulated ECA for its role in developing National Information and Communication Infrastructure (NICI) plans and in coordinating Africa's participation in the World Summit on the Information Society in Tunis where the ARAPKE was adopted.

Egypt 's Minister of Communication and Information Technology Dr Tarek Kamel said ECA had “spared no effort in coordinating African views and positions towards different issues including those debated within the WSIS”.

His Ghanaian counterpart Albert Kan-Dapaah commended ECA for mobilizing the continent through the African Information Society Initiative (AISI), which in his view “was the first major initiative to give effect to the concept of ICT for Development as well as the key leadership role expected from Ministers to spearhead the implementation in our respective countries”.

This event was held as a result of the January 2006 Khartoum Summit which called on the African Union Commission to organize the first conference of African ministers responsible for ICTs .

The meeting concluded by issuing a declaration which recommended institutionalising the Conference of ICT Ministers as the policymaking and overall governance body for ICT in the framework of the African Union. The meeting also adopted the outline of a proposed structure as the basis for the Conference and its related committees.

Forty-two countries participated in the conference, including 15 ministers from Gambia , Zimbabwe , Ethiopia , Ghana , Guinea , Tunisia , Senegal , Sudan , Uganda , Kenya , Burundi , Nigeria , Lesotho , South Africa and Mauritania .