Latin American Business Executives Warned

about the Digital Gap during the III OAS Private

Sector Forum.

On June 2 and 3, 2006, within the framework of the XXXVI General Assembly of the Organization of American States (OAS), the III OAS Private Sector Forum was held in the city of Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. The theme for this event organized by the Private Sector of the Americas was “Inter-American Public-Private Alliance for Competitiveness and Job Creation in the Learned Society.”

The pressing need for a broad and constructive dialogue among the private and the public sectors, the Latin American business sector and the regional governments to advance the hemisphere and realize that Latin America is running the risk of being left lagging behind in this globalized world was one of the main warnings voiced by the Forum of the Private Sector of the Americas.

Mr. Ernesto Gutiérrez, the president of the Private Sector, addressed this topic in a direct way: "We are convinced that increasing investments in technology is the best instrument available to make the entire hemisphere more competitive within the international context."

In this same line of thought, OAS Secretary General José Miguel Insulza, talked about this digital gap using numbers: "According to a recent report produced by the IDB, – the former Chilean Minister of Foreign Affairs stated – all the American countries as a whole, excluding the United States and Canada, have invested 11 billion dollars in technological research and development in the last year. Only Korea has allocated 12 billion dollars a year to conduct studies and promote digital expansion.”

Meanwhile, Vinton Cerf, Google Vice-President, stated that statistics help to clarify even more this scenario: "In 1997, there were 22 million PCs around the globe. In 2006, there were 395 million. In 1997, there were 50 million Internet users around the globe. In 2006, users climbed to 1022 million. The percentages for the American continent as far as Internet use is concerned are the following: United States, 68%; the Caribbean, 11%; Central America, 16%, and South America, 15%.”

The founder of MIT Media Laboratory, Nicholas Negroponte, presented the project he is currently carrying out with some companies. This project is known as "one notebook, one child.”

Finally, the President of the Dominican Republic, Leonel Fernández, vindicated all the initiatives he had adopted to promote technological innovation in his country. Fernández admitted he already has some pending areas as far as energy supply and social issues are concerned. Yet, at the same time, he highlighted that the Dominican Republic will fail to embark on actual growth if it does not go for technological development.

During this event, the business executives were divided into three working groups focused on the following subjects: The role of transparency and legal stability for investment", "Human development and competitiveness in education", and "Technological infrastructure for education and communication.” The conclusions from these meetings have been presented before all the Ministers of Foreign Affairs who attended OAS General Assembly, whose session coincided with the date scheduled for this Business Forum.

This initiative, which has been already submitted to the governments of Brazil, Argentina, Nigeria, Thailand, China, and India, seeks to cut down the costs of such notebooks to merely 100 dollars. Negroponte stressed this proposal is intended to let children learn in a more participative and funny way.

Yet, apart from striving for the establishment of a dialogue involving all the interested parties with a view to narrowing the gap that currently exists between the region and the developed countries, the representatives from the business sector analyzed actual proposals to help technology reach the sectors with lower incomes.  

On his part, the executive Gustavo Cisneros (Cisneros Group) considered that "an unyielding focus on education is required, particularly if we bear in mind that our region is currently lagging behind as far as quality of contents and methods used by schools are concerned.”

"The States –Gutiérrez highlighted – should facilitate the adoption of public policies that seek to extend new technologies to the entire society, while, in addition, the private sector should strengthen such expansion in the labor field but also in the daily life of all citizens."