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Permanent Council and CIDI Hear Presentation of Digital Plan of Colombia and Establish Joint Working Group on Action Plan for the Social Charter of the Americas

The Permanent Council and the Inter-American Council for Integral Development (CIDI) of the Organization of American States (OAS) held a joint meeting today in which they heard the presentation of the “Digital Plan for the 2014-2018 period” of Colombia, and approved the establishment of the Joint Working Group on Action Plan for the Social Charter of the Americas.

The Minister of Information and Communication Technology (ICTs) of Colombia, Diego Molano, who made the presentation of the Digital Plan of his country, said new technological tools are key to the development of Colombia and the region, and to comply with the goals his government has set. “We must work from a political point of view in the OAS to take advantage of the revolution in the information society and to solve our main problem, that continues to be inequality and poverty,” he said.

During his address, Minister Molano shared the contents of the technological program of Colombia saying that it is not only focused on the central government, but includes other public institutions in the country. “The technology is totally transversal, it goes to all ministries, we work with all of them, and also with regional leaders, with governors and with mayors. Today all the regions of Colombia have an ICT Secretariat.”

Moreover, he highlighted the advances of his country in the area of ICTs and as an example noted that, in terms of services Colombia went from three to ten cellular phone operators in the local markets, which improved competition, and also highlighted that all public schools in Colombia have technology services, which were accompanied by training sessions for teachers.

Minister Molano said in terms of infrastructure, his country has gone from having five submarine fiber optic cables to nine, and has connections of the latest technology in all the country´s municipalities. In this way, he said in Colombia, the connection to the latest technology on cell phones is being expanded to allow access to internet. “In this area the OAS plays a vital, fundamental role,” said Minister Molano, who recalled “the intense work” and the coordination with countries and technology manufacturers done by the Inter-American Telecommunication Commission (CITEL) of the OAS so that the single person cell phones could function in the entire region. To support his presentation, Minister Molano presented a video that demonstrates the technological advances in his country.

Secretary General Insulza said that, at the heart of the debate on the Strategic Vision is the definition of criteria for the selection of the activities to be carried out “that they be important and that they also be hemispheric, and that the Organization play an important role in their implementation.” In this regard, he added that in his statement, Minister Molano made it clear that the OAS has an important role to play, and “we have done so because CITEL has been involved in this technological development process from the time when telecommunications companies that met were all public until now when the situation is quite different. We went rapidly from using fixed-line telephony to satellite telecommunications.”

The head of the OAS noted that the Organization is carrying out important work in the area of information technology and, among other areas, he mentioned the work on cybercrime, e-government, and CITEL. On another item on the agenda of the meeting, co-chaired by the Chair of the Permanent Council and Permanent Representative of Saint Lucia, Sonia Johnny, and by the Chair of CIDI, the Permanent Representative of Trinidad and Tobago, Neil Parsan, the installation of the Joint Working Group of the Permanent Council and CIDI on the Draft Plan of Action of the Social Charter of the Americas was approved. The Council also elected by acclamation the Permanent Representative of Dominica, Hubert Charles, to chair the Working Group. Ambassador Charles thanked the Council for his election and said that he will work to meet the deadlines set by the General Assembly, which calls for completing the task before the end of the year.

During the meeting, the delegations of Dominica, Mexico, Colombia, Peru, and Honduras took the floor.

A gallery of photos of the event is available here.

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

Reference: E-312/14