Latin America needs digitization as a tool to implement development policies

Digitization is key to design and implement public policies centered on people and as a path to sustainable development in Latin America and the Caribbean, high-level officials from the region’s countries, meeting at the Eighth Ministerial Conference on the Information Society which is held in Montevideo, Uruguay, starting this Wednesday.

The three-day conclave, organized by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) and the government of Uruguay, has the objective of defining the priorities of policies at the regional level that promote digital transformation with a vision of sustainable development.

According to ECLAC, during the 2014-2023 period the region will register the lowest growth in the last 70 years, so it must work both to reduce inequality and create wealth.

The executive secretary of ECLAC, José Manuel Salazar-Xirinachs, explained that for this needed productive development policies and digital transformation policiesand called for promoting the positive effects of digital technologies and addressing the challenges in terms of inequality, privacy, security, competition and data protection.

Digital technologies for the entire population

“Digitalization is one of the priority areas for the transformation of the development model of Latin America and the Caribbean”, he stressed, stressing that in order to move towards a process of digital inclusion, a set of actions and policies are required to facilitate the use and adoption of digital technologies in all segments of the population, companies and government institutions.

He added that in its 17 years of existence, the Digital Agenda for Latin America and the Caribbean it has generated enormous capacities in terms of dialogue and cooperation and that its agreements were crucial to consolidate a common vision on the mechanisms necessary to enhance the impact of digital technologies in terms of development.

connectivity gaps

The person in charge of ECLAC asserted that the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated digitization in the region and assured that the State has promoted digital transformation, although he recognized that connectivity gaps persist that condition social inclusion.

The Commission’s data indicates that Fixed broadband reached nearly 62% of households in Latin America and the Caribbean in 2021which places the region well below North America and Europe, which cover close to 100% and 90%, respectively.

The differences are also significant in the case of mobile broadband, which has a coverage of 78% of the population in the region, and 105% and close to 150% in the cases of Europe and North America.

Salazar-Xirinachs pointed out that still A quarter of urban households and two thirds of rural ones still need to be connected. He also specified that the unconnected families in the lowest income quintile triple those of the highest income in the region.

He added that half of young people between thirteen and 25 yearsa third of children between the ages of five and twelve and 25% of adults over the age of 66 are currently not connected in Latin America and the Caribbean.

spheres of action

In this context, the head of ECLAC proposed five areas of action for a sustainable and inclusive digitization in the region:

• generate the enabling conditionswhich implies expanding the coverage of services, ensuring effective universal coverage, speeding up the deployment of advanced mobile networks such as 5G and developing digital skills
• develop digital solutions
• boost the digital transformation favoring, for example, entrepreneurship and innovation and promoting the digitization of companies)
• establish a digital governance
• strengthen the regional cooperation and integrationpromoting, among other things, a regional digital market

The Conference’s discussion agenda includes topics such as investment, infrastructure and connectivity; governance and regulation and regional digital market; innovation, entrepreneurship and digital transformation; digitization for greater inclusion; skills and abilities for societies in transformation; cybersecurity and critical assets; digital commerce and SMEs; green transition in a digital world; smart cities; digital government and citizen participation; and cooperation and strategic alliances for a new digitization.