Assembly/AU/Dec.497(XXII) DECISION ON THE SUSTAINABILITY OF THE PAN-AFRICAN E-NETWORK Assembly/AU/16(XXII)Add.2 The Assembly, 1. NOTES AND WELCOMES the proposal submitted by the Republic of Senegal on the extension of the Pan-African E-Network Project under the Africa-India partnership; 2. RECALLS the Cooperation Framework adopted by the First Summit of the India-Africa Forum held on 8 and 9 April 2008 in New Delhi, in which Africa and India, recognized that information technologies are among the new factors of economic growth and as such, are increasingly considered as essential elements in the development of socio-economic activities in Africa and India; 3. TAKES INTO ACCOUNT the framework for enhanced Africa-India cooperation, adopted by the Second Summit of the India-Africa Forum, held on 25 May 2011, in which both Parties undertook to draw lessons from the implementation and effectiveness of the Pan-African online Network Project to bridge the digital divide and exploit the socio-economic benefits of ICT for their common objectives; 4. RECOGNIZES the important contribution of the Pan-African online Network Project in the attainment of the development goals of African countries; 5. WELCOMES the outstanding achievements in the implementation of this project during these five (05) years, which has enabled more than 10,000 students to receive higher and Post Graduate studies and more than 5,000 Doctors from Africa to receive Continuous Medical Training(CMT) for the improvement of their skills in the highly specialized disciplines; 6. THANKS the Indian Government for the establishment of this project with 48 countries connected to the network; 7. REQUESTS the Commission to deploy all efforts to ensure the continuity of operation of the network (PAeN) after the end of the assistance of India in collaboration with the host country of the Hub Station network (Senegal), India and the countries participating to the network; 8. ALSO REQUESTS the Commission to prepare and submit to Member States at the January 2015 Assembly Session an action plan for the sustainability of the services of the network. The resources required in this regard should be made available to the Commission which, among other things, could discuss with the Indian Government the provision of possible assistance to attain this objective. Member States should secure necessary resources for the Commission to achieve this objective.