The 2nd Steering Committee (SC) Meeting for the ITU Arab Centres of Excellence Network was held in Hammamet, Tunisia from 17 to 18 November 2015 and kindly hosted by CIFODECOM of Tunisia as side event to ICT4ALL event. H E, Noomane FEHRI, the Minister of Telecommunications Technologies and Digital Economy of Tunisia, officially opened the meeting. The General Manager of CIFODECOM accompanied the Minister.
The 2nd Steering Committee meeting for the Centres of Excellence of the Americas region was organized by the Telecommunication Development Bureau (BDT) of the ITU, in Bogota, Colombia, from 25 to 27 of November 2015 and hosted by the Centro de Investigación y Desarrollo en Tecnologías de la Información y las Comunicaciones (CINTEL) in close collaboration with the Ministerio de Tecnologías de la Información y las Comunicaciones de Colombia and the Agencia Nacional del Espectro-ANE, as academic partner.
The 2nd Steering Committee meeting for the Centres of Excellence of the Africa region was held in Ebene, Mauritius from 2 to 4 December 2015 and kindly hosted by EMTEL Innovation Centre. The meeting was officially opened by Dr Subron, Chief Technical Officer, and Ministry of Information Communications Technology for Mauritius.
The 2nd Steering Committee meeting of the Centres of Excellence of the CIS region was held in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, on 9 December 2015. The meeting was held back to back with the round table meeting on the Implementation of the Regional Initiatives for the CIS region. It was kindly hosted by the Ministry of Transport and Communications of Kyrgyz Republic and the Institute of Electronics and Telecommunications under Kyrgyz State Technical University, which is one of the Centres of Excellence for the CIS region.
The 2nd Steering Committee meeting for the Centres of Excellence for Europe was held in Copenhagen, Denmark on 19 January 2016, and hosted by the European Communication Office. Opening remarks on behalf of Com-ITU of CEPT were delivered by Mr Manuel da Costa Cabral, also the Chairman of SC-CoE-EUR in 2015. Opening remarks on behalf of ITU were delivered by Mr Jaroslaw Ponder, Coordinator for Europe, ITU. Mr Per Christensen, Director of the European Communication Office welcomed the meeting participants in his capacity as host organization.
The 2nd Steering Committee meeting for the Centres of Excellence for Asia Pacific was held in Bengaluru, India on 28-29 January 2016, and hosted by the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology of Thailand. Mr. Indrajeet S. Khanna, Deputy Director General (International Relations), Department of Telecommunications provided welcoming remarks on behalf of the Government of India. He recalled the growth that ICT has undergone over the years and congratulated the CoEs for the progress made. On behalf of ITU, Mr.