What are the connectivity needs of the Bogotá Metropolitan Region?

This Wednesday, July 3 the forum was held ‘ICT Colombia: discovering the digital and transformative future of Bogotá’organized and modulated by Impacta TIC, EL TIEMPO and Portafolio. The meeting addressed the current situation of digital connectivity and its potential to transform realities in the capital and in the municipalities that make up the Metropolitan Region.

Mauricio Jaramillo, editorial director of Impacto TICcarried out a diagnosis of the current conditions of connectivity in the country within the framework of the consolidation of the Metropolitan Region of Bogotá, placing special emphasis on the potential of the municipalities surrounding the city.

He assured that the region has been advancing in issues of digital connectivity, This is reflected in the recent recognitions that Bogotá has received thanks to its proposals in public innovation and digital governance models..

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“If Bogotá is integrated, connected and better articulated with the municipalities of Cundinamarca, it could multiply its potential, promote economic growth and attract investments.“Jaramillo said, adding that the city has made great strides in closing the digital divide, but needs to continue encouraging connectivity with more municipalities.

Subsequently, Saúl Kattán, advisor for digital transformation of the Presidency of the Republicgave more details about what is happening in digital matters in the region, assuring that his diagnosis is not so optimistic.

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“12 years after fiber optics arrived in Bogotá, we still have many areas of the city that are still not fully connected. We can talk about the municipalities surrounding Bogotá, we can talk about the south of the city and we can also talk about the climb to La Calera or the Circunvalar avenue.“, said.

And he added: “When we talk about smart cities and a digital transformation of Bogotá, we cannot really talk about a smart city. In the end, if we do not have a connected city by the end of 2024, we really have a problem.“.

In the first panel of the forum, modulated by José Carlos García, multimedia editor of EL TIEMPOthe strategies regarding digitalization and the opportunities that this offers to the city and the region were discussed.

They participated in this first part Viviana Vanegas, digital director of the National Planning Department (DNP); Juan Daniel Oviedo, councilor of Bogotá; Arleth Patricia Saurith, ICT district councilor in charge of the Mayor’s Office of Bogotá; María Cecilia Cárdenas, commercial manager of Smart Cities of the Bogotá Telecommunications Company (ETB); Vladimír Linares, technical systems engineer of Pandult; and Rebeca Basurto, country manager in Colombia of Itera Process.

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Vanegas began by explaining that Bogotá is, in fact, a leader in digital development and innovation, stating that 48% of software and IT companies are established in the city.

“This implies that they have some huge challenges, because when it is said that they are in Bogotá, it is not that they are only concentrated in the city and that in the rest of the regions they are left behind, but it is also an opportunity for those who are in the city to begin to go down to the territories.“, said.

The digital director of the DNP also mentioned that internet penetration in homes in the city reaches approximately 77.4%, However, he acknowledged that further progress must be made in terms of Internet access.

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Councillor Oviedo, now in his turn, spoke about the consolidation of interconnectivity in the Metropolitan Region, that is, in Bogotá and in the municipalities surrounding the citymentioning that greater boldness is needed regarding how the ” will be carried outtechnological deployment“and the appropriation of this technology to improve competitiveness and improve conditions in business environments.

“Colombia has grown its capacity to generate wealth by 308.9% and Bogotá is slightly above if we go back to the last 42 years, but it is necessary for the city to use technology to always remain with a much faster growth rate compared to the rest of the country, but at the same time, to be exemplary.“, he mentioned.

In her turn, María Cecilia Cárdenas emphasized the city’s potential to be a reference in connectivity, not only for the surrounding municipalities, but also for other important cities in the country, and explained that “the opportunities are given“, but there are also very important challenges.

“We have to continue working on connectivity, we have to continue closing the digital gaps in schools, in the rural population. ETB supported the construction of five towers in the territory of Sumapaz, which had been unable to connect for decades; and now more than 7,000 people have connectivity.“, he said.

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And I add: “Technology is the tool that enables transformation so that each user has the best experience in building a smart city. We must work on all the pillars, we must take advantage of what we already have, but we must continue to grow.“.

Vladimír Linares, in his speech, said that Bogotá is one of the four main cities in Latin America in terms of data centers: “They are São Paulo, Querétaro, Santiago de Chile and Bogotá“.

“We must take advantage of this strength and continue to delve deeper, because if we want to implement 5G and artificial intelligence, we must implement it, we must enhance it and we must know how to do it, and to do so, we must partner well with experts.“, he added.

Finally, Rebeca Basurto mentioned that it is important to have tools like the cloud: “It is a lever, it is a main input within the technology strategies in any company and in the Government.“.

This module, led by the Director of Portfolio, Francisco Mirandaspoke about the interconnected work of the different actors in the information and communications technology sector to consolidate connectivity in the region.

In this talk participated Victor Julian Sanchez, mayor of the citybeginning of Soacha; Santiago Pinzón Galán, vice president of digital transformation at Andi; Martha Castellanos, academic vice-rector of the Andean Area University Foundation; Ana María Arreola, commercial and marketing director of Compusoluciones and Nicolás Torres, ICT consultant at Asocapitales.

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Pinzón highlighted the articulation of the public and private sectors to consolidate the connectivity of the region: “If there is one thing this territory has, it is the ability to bring logistics and movement capabilities to reality. A new momentum is developing“.

Torres mentioned that “One of the main tasks is to provide technical support to our partners. In this process, many cities see it as an enabler for the solution of strategic projects.“.

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Arreola explained how companies can serve as academic support to perform these processes: “We need to develop a technological system that serves the university, the government, and the region. This technological ecosystem is made up of all the distributors who are specialists in technology, and we have to bring them together.“.

And the mayor of Soacha closed by saying: “It is normal that in a strategy and in an integration scheme as recent as the Metropolitan Region, we see certain confusions regarding another scheme that had been operating over the years, which was the metropolitan area. For the first time in our country we have an organic law that establishes a resource of 5,000 million pesos only from the region.“.

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