By IANS,
New Delhi : Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will inaugurate the 20th Conference of Speakers and Presiding Officers of the Commonwealth (CSPOC) that will be held from Jan 4 to 8 at Vigyan Bhawan here.
“Speakers and presiding officers from around 50 countries of the Commonwealth and speakers/presiding officers of 25 Indian states are expected to attend the conference,” said a statement issued by the Lok Sabha secretariat Friday.
“Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will inaugurate the conference. He will also deliver the keynote address at the inaugural session,” said a secretariat official.
According to the CSPOC website, the conference brings together the speakers and presiding officers of the national parliaments of Commonwealth countries.
It was created in 1969 as an initiative of then speaker of the House of Commons of Canada, Lucien Lamoureux.
The stated aim of the conference is to “maintain, foster, and encourage impartiality and fairness on the part of speakers and presiding officers of parliaments; promote knowledge and understanding of parliamentary democracy in its various forms; and develop parliamentary institutions.”
The last conference was held in London in 2008.