Digital inclusion: The key to progress

Internet access changed Cecilia Beltramo's life. Almost a decade ago, this 59-year-old Argentine translator and editor changed the big city for a country life. Thanks to technology, Beltramo could replace the office and smog by a desk with a view to The Pampas of Argentina.

However, the connection with the world was not easy from a country located 135 kilometers southwest of Buenos Aires. 

Looking for connectivity, Beltramo traveled 25 kilometers to reach the nearest town and paid 10,000 dollars to the only person in the area with experience in construction of towers.

"The only way to have Internet was building a tower. When I had the opportunity to build the tower I did not think it twice", related Beltramo.

"An older man called "Torrero" built the tower. His work was to build towers similar to mine for the cooperative that provides electrical services in Lobos", she said.

 The tower is a 30-meter-high metal construction fitted with a lightning rod and crowned with an equipment that points to an antenna located in a nearby town. The antenna picks up the signal and provides Beltramo's house with Internet access, making it one of the few houses in the area with connection.

Beltramo's house has become a meeting place for children who use connectivity to do their homework.

The experience of Beltramo demonstrates how much the technologies of information and communication (ICT) sector in Latin America have advanced, and how much is left to go to optimize the relationship between Internet access and the generation of wealth, and social inclusion.

According to the ICT index of the CAF (Development Bank of Latin America), an entity that finances several projects of digitization in the region, the digital gap is 50%. This means that half of Latin Americans do not have any access to the network. Just 10% have access to broadband connections and 20% connect via mobile broadband.

At the enterprise level, penetration is much higher. According to the "Ecosystem and digital economy in Latin America" study of forthcoming publication and sponsored by the CAF, the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), the CET, the Ibero-American Association of research centers and telecommunications companies (AHCIET), and the Telefónica Foundation, the adoption of computing, Internet and email in the manufacturing sector of the continent has reached levels exceeding 70 per cent. However, regarding the supply chain and the distribution channels, the manufacturing sector still has to overcome some obstacles to advance in its digitalization process.

In a comparative basis, the percentage of manufacturing establishments in Sweden that interact with the government through Internet reached the 88.8 per cent in 2009 (against an average of 45.7 per cent for Latin America), the percentage of those who acquired goods electronically in Germany was 48.0 per cent in 2007 (against 41.7 per cent in Latin America) , while 44.3 per cent of the establishments in the United Kingdom received purchase orders by the same means in 2008 (against 32.42 per cent in Latin America).

Mauricio Agudelo, specialist in telecommunications of the CAF, states that the reduction of the digital gap can be achieved through public and private efforts.

"143,000 millions of dollars more are needed to close the digital gap from now until 2020. Those 143,000 million will not come alone if there is not an institutional framework that promotes investment, competition, that decrease the uncertainty of companies", he pointed out.

Agudelo recently participated in the Latin American Congress of telecommunications 2015 in Cancún, organized by the CAF, the Inter-American Association of Telecommunications Companies (ASIET), the Secretariat of Communications and Transportation of Mexico (SCT) and the GSMA. Among the topics covered in that forum, he became aware of the importance of infrastructure investment as a catalyst for social and economic growth. 

According to CAF figures in a study conducted together with Asiet, ECLAC and the Telefónica Foundation, in the past five years digitalization on Latin America has contributed 4.3% to the regional gross domestic product and has generated over 900,000 jobs, becoming a key element to mitigate the current economic slowdown. 

"This is a market that contributes significantly to the GDP of the economies." Industry experts classify it as a cross-cutting sector that contributes indirectly to other sectors, Agudelo said.

Agudelo cited the sector of services, tourism, financial services, mining, and agriculture as examples.

"Despite the slowdown that Latin America is experiencing, a greater presence in this sector in the economy improves productivity and accelerates the growth rates of the countries", he added.

Considering this, some governments in the region have launched initiatives.

The Government of Chile has promoted the 'Startup Chile' program. This project seeks to attract enterprises in its initial phase with the aim to use the country as a platform to go out into the world. And the city of Medellin, in Colombia, is in full development of a technological district that aims to attract companies udad colombiana se encuentra en ra en ombiana de Medellrendimientos en su fase inicial con el objetivo de que utilicen el painisrelated to science and technology, especially in the sectors of health, energy and ICT.

Added to this is the growing penetration of mobile telephony, which increasingly facilitates connectivity of Latin Americans.

The telecommunications sector and governments have increasingly attributed "a huge potential to reduce the digital gap" to mobile broadband, according to Gustavo Fontanals, expert in telecommunications and researcher at the Universidad de Buenos Aires. "This will depend on the implementation of promotion policies that ensure that development meets the less profitable areas and that aim to reduce the prices for the services."

With policies like these, Fontanals said, "the access of the sectors of the population until now disconnected will be possible." 

Sectors such as the children of the country who go to Beltramo's house to do their homework in the shadow of her metal tower.