The government of Belize has long recognized the centrality of Information Technology and Communications for the country’s development and it is for this reason that a Task force was appointed in 2008 to spearhead and co-ordinate relevant initiatives.  The Task Force which is drawn from a broad range of stakeholders reports to a High Level Steering Committee. Coincident with this, government requested the assistance of the Commonwealth Secretariat in the development of a national ICT Strategy.  COMNET was in turn sought to draw up appropriate Terms of Reference for such an assignment for Government’s approval.  The purpose of the strategy was to devise a road map pointing to necessary developments in telecommunications, education, e-Government and the means to achieve these .

Malta was identified as the partner with the right credentials for this assignment, and a local Technical Specialist is assisting in the following project phases: Orientation Data collection Data analysis Strategy formulation Project Update To date two field visits have been carried out. The first field visit held in February 2009 sought to identify the national issues that need to be addressed. As a direct consequence of this visit COMNET-IT submitted recommendations to the Government of Belize on the organisational capacity that the Government should consider to establish in order to support such a national policy.

Photos courtesy of Government of Belize