CAF Presents Actions to Promote Digital Transformation in the Region

Organized by the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), the event brought together the main leaders and decision-makers in digital matters from the public and private sectors, the tech community and civil society in the region for a three-day event.

On the third day of the meeting, Jorge Srur, CAF’s southern regional manager, participated in the dialogue “Cooperation and strategic partnerships for a new digitalization,” where he shared the actions carried out by the institution to promote digital transformation in the region.

“Digitalization is an absolutely key tool for the economic revival of Latin America and to achieve the 2030 decarbonization goals. To this end, CAF has developed several actions,” Srur said.

To fulfill its digital transformation purposes, CAF has invested around USD 3.7 billion in large-scale projects to improve digital connectivity and contribute to digital transformation for households, businesses and governments in Latin America.

In terms of digital infrastructure, in addition to satellite connectivity projects and work on the Humboldt submarine cable, also noteworthy is the Santa Fe + Conectada project. It includes laying 3,400 kilometers of fiber optics in the Argentine province of Santa Fe, enabling progress towards connectivity in 365 towns in the province and Education 4.0 in the area.

But it’s not only about connectivity. CAF has also been supporting the deployment and adoption of advanced technologies incorporating IoT, M2M and artificial intelligence. A notable example here is a strategic data and artificial intelligence usage development project with a gender perspective, which enables more efficient and effective justice for violence reporting processes.

“We are bringing not only great change, but an access opportunity to the entire region. Our future agenda focuses on two pillars: infrastructure and access/use issues. Based on these, CAF intends to continue contributing to the region in digital matters,” concluded Srur.

The panel also featured Sergio Abreu, secretary general of the Latin American Integration Association (ALADI); Hebert Paguas, executive director of the Agency for Electronic Government and the Information and Knowledge Society (AGESIC); Lucía Scuro, Senior Economic Affairs Officer, Gender Affairs Division, ECLAC; Félix Fernández-Shaw, Director for Latin America and the Caribbean of the European Commission Directorate-General for International Partnerships; Federico Bonaglia, Deputy Director of the Development Centre of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD); and Claudio Araya San Martín, Undersecretary of Telecommunications of Chile’s Ministry of Transport and Telecommunications.