Today’s
societies are constantly seeking ways to improve their quality of life,
and science and technology play a vital part in that search.
Experimentation,
research and innovation, mean that more opportunities for improving
people’s lives exist today than ever before. Take long distance
communication, where the obstacles of time and geography have been
dramatically reduced: people can now use mobile phones to be in instant
contact virtually anywhere in the world, be it with a medical centre in
the Himalayan mountains in Asia, a Pacific island school, a research
facility at the South Pole, or even the international space station,
beyond this planet altogether.
Advances in modern
telecommunications are also having a marked economic effect on people
from developing nations in the Commonwealth, helping to transform small
to medium-sized businesses. The internet is playing an important part in
helping to nurture these fledgling markets but, as yet, it still
remains an unaffordable option for too many of our Commonwealth
citizens.
Progress in the fields of healthcare,
manufacturing, and education have, for the most part, helped improve
people’s lives throughout the world. In the health sector, the
Commonwealth has shown how collaborative schemes can successfully assist
member states to fight pandemics and diseases.
In making
these advances the Commonwealth recognises that the best forms of
innovation are those that unite, and help build resilient partnerships
and better societies as a whole.
This is particularly
important for the more than half of the Commonwealth citizens who are
under 25 years of age. It is vital that their potential to build on the
exceptional scientific expertise that exists in member states is also
fully supported through education and social development. The
Commonwealth understands this, and should continue to aid and encourage
our young people to participate in the exciting new opportunities that
lie ahead, in the knowledge that progress is something which must be
sustained and shared by all.
Elizabeth R
8
March 2010
Head of the Commonwealth, on Commonwealth Day 2010