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OAS Assistant Secretary General Participates in Inauguration of the VI Assembly of the Inter-American Telecommunication Commission

The Assistant Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS), Albert Ramdin, took part today in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic in the inauguration of the VI Assembly of the Inter-American Telecommunication Commission (CITEL), calling on the region to strengthen alliances and work toward an inclusive information society with accessible costs.

Assistant Secretary General Ramdin said, reinforcing the idea of the meeting in Santo Domingo, that the region has much to do in terms of social inclusion in information technology. “In Latin America, just one of every eight people has access to broadband, which moreover is slow and expensive. We cannot forget that 164 million people, or 28 percent of the population of Latin America and the Caribbean, live in conditions of poverty,” he said. Ambassador Ramdin highlighted the potential of the digital revolution and called on the member countries of the OAS to “strengthen alliances to achieve an inclusive information society with accessible costs.”

In that sense, Ambassador Ramdin said the agenda of CITEL is very connected to the pillars of the hemispheric institution: the promotion of democracy and democratic governance, respect for human rights, citizen security and sustainable development.

During his address, the diplomat from Surinam urged the more than 200 participants in the CITEL Assembly to open a debate on the new role of the Telecommunication Commission in support of the OAS agenda. “The accelerated developments in telecommunications and their dissemination on a global level are profoundly changing the rules of international relations. On one hand, national borders no longer limit cultural, economic, technological or political integration,” he said. Ramdin added that “groups that previously had no voice are achieving greater access and influence in the international community. On the global level communities are being created with a great capacity for mobilization. This is reality. Civil society and non-governmental organizations, through telecommunications and information and communication technologies (ICTs) are becoming more powerful in international relations.”

Moreover, he said that changes currently underway require the various societal actors to break with tradition and open the way to discover new paths that benefit all. “The OAS, which is the oldest regional institution in the world, has also had to adapt itself to the changing necessities of its member states,” said the Assistant Secretary General, who said “we must continue to do so, because we still haven’t seen the end of the transformations that will come as a result of the establishment in the Americas of an inclusive information society.”

In addition to the OAS Assistant Secretary General, the opening ceremony also feature the participation of the President of the Board of Directors of the Dominican Telecommunications Institute (INDOTEL), Gedeón Santos; the Executive Secretary of CITEL, Clovis Baptista; the Deputy Secretary General of the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), Houlin Zhao; the Assistant Director of International Affairs of the Secretariat of Communications and Transport of Mexico, Karel Ochoa; and the Vice President of INDOTEL, Pedro José Mercado Gris. Ochoa and Gris attended in representation of the outgoing Chair and Vice Chair of the Permanent Steering Committee of CITEL.

After the opening of the meeting, Mister Santos was unanimously elected as President of the Permanent Executive Committee of CITEL until 2018, when the Seventh Assembly of the Committee will be convened. In his first speech as president, Santos said that a large group of countries in the region needs to accelerate plans and policies connectivity and digital inclusion through strategic partnerships with the government sector and the private sector.

Following the opening of the meeting, Santos was elected unanimously as Chair of the Permanent Steering Committee of CITEL until 2018, when the VII Assembly will be held. In his first address as Chair, Santos said a significant number of countries in the region need to accelerate their plans and policies on connectivity and digital inclusion through strategic alliances with the public and private sectors.

Santos recalled that the latest report of the Inter-American Telecommunication Union (ITU) points out the need to identify who is not connected and where they are located, to attack the root causes that leave so many individuals and households not connected to the internet. According to Santos, in the ICT Development Index, prepared by the ITU, the region of the Americas had an average value of 4.5 points, which places two points below the average value of developed countries. Santos announced that he would make the necessary efforts to realize the primary objective of CITEL, which is the comprehensive and sustainable development of telecommunications in the Americas.

Santos said that during his term as head of the commission he will focus on raising the use of ICTs in the region to the level of developed countries. "The work that needs to be done to raise Latin America and the Caribbean to the level of developed countries in digital issues constitutes an immense task we must face in the next four years," he said.

The VI Assembly of CITEL will conclude on Thursday, February 13.

A gallery of photos of the event is available here.

For more information, please visit the OAS Website at www.oas.org.

Reference: E-045/14