Ministers, entrepreneurs, and ICT experts of the region will participate in the 2016 Latin American Telecommunications Congress

Ministers, regulatory authorities, and executives from the information and telecommunications industry in Latin America, will meet between June 20th and 23rd in Cancun, Mexico, for the 2016 Latin American Communications Congress.

The main regional event on public policies includes the participation of the Minister of Communications and ICT Secretary of Argentina, Oscar Aguad and Héctor Huici, respectively; Pedro Huichalaf, Undersecretary of Telecommunications of Chile; David Luna, ICT Minister of Colombia; Gerardo Ruiz Esparza, Secretary of Communications and Transportation of Mexico, and the Undersecretary of Communications Mónica Aspe Bernal, in addition to the Minister of Industry, Energy, and Mining of Uruguay, Carolina Cosse. Other participants include Mario Cimoli, Director of the Division of Productive and Entrepreneurial Development of ECLAC, and Gabriela Ramos, chief of staff at the OECD. 

Top representatives from regulatory organizations of Colombia, Mexico, and the United States will also be present at the CLT16: Germán Darío Arias Pimienta and Juan Manuel Wilches (Executive Director and Expert Commissioner of CRC, Colombia; Gabriel Contreras (President Commissioner of IFT Mexico); and Mindel de la Torre (Director of the FCC International of the USA). 

The meeting will help share and analyze best practices and solutions to deepen the development of the digital ecosystem in Latin America. It will include a Plenary Session dedicated to the following topics: Challenges for regulations of the future; Internet in the next five years; Investments in telecommunications to close the digital gap; The strategy of the Single Digital Market in Europe: is it possible to copy it in Latin America?; Impact of the 2015 World Conference on Radio Communications on the mobile services and radio broadcasting services; and Challenges for digital development in Latin America. 

Following are some of the regional and international speakers that stand out at the CLT16: 

?     Carlos Slim Domit, President of the Management Council, Grupo América Móvil

?     Eduardo Caride, President, Telefónica Hispanoamérica

?     Bruno Ramos, Regional Director of the UIT Regional Office for the Americas 

?     Pablo Bello, Executive Director, ASIET

?     Sebastián Cabello, Latin American Leader, GSMA

?     Mauricio Agudelo, Senior ICT and Telecom specialist, CAF

?     Alejandro Cantú, Legal Director, América Móvil

?     Roberto Borge Angulo, Constitutional Governor of the State of Quintana Roo

?     Pedro Less, Director Public Policy and Government Affairs Latin America, Google

?     Oscar León, Executive Secretary, CITEL

?     Sebastián Kaplan, Director of Regulatory Affairs for Latin America, Millicom Group

?     Anriette Esterhuysen, Executive Director, Association for Progressive Communications

?     Fernando Borjón, Director General of the Organization to Promote Telecommunications Investments, SCT México

?     José Juan Haro, Director of  Regulation and Wholesale Business for  Latin America, Telefónica

Other personalities at the CLT16 include: Kaja Kallas, Member of the Industry, Research, and Energy Commission of the European Parliament; Gedéon Santos,President of INDOTEL of the Dominican Republic; Roberto Meana, General Manager of ASEP Panama; Javier Daccarett, President Commissioner of CONATEL Honduras; Lucy Sioli, Chief of the Unit "European Semester and Knowledge Base" DG Connect, European Commission; José Raúl Solares, Superintendent of SIT Guatemala; Oscar Estrada, Executive Secretary of COMTELCA; Edgar Rodas Abarca, Telecommunications Manager of SIGET El Salvador; and Manuel Ruíz Gutiérrez, President of SUTEL Costa Rica.

The four-day agenda of the CLT16 includes the participation of ministers, regulators, congress representatives, academics, and senior representatives of companies of the telecommunications ecosystem of Latin America. In addition to the Plenary Session (Monday June 20th and Tuesday June 21st), there will be a CE-Digital Workshop: Competition Policies in the Digital Era (Wednesday June 22nd); the CAF, ASIET, ECLAC Workshop: Connectivity and Single Digital Market in Latin America (Wednesday, June 22nd) ; the Mexico Seminar: "Assessment of the telecommunications reform in Mexico (Wednesday, June 22nd); and the Annual CPR Latam Conference: the interdisciplinary network of research centers brings together the most important ICT academics of the region, with regulators and representatives of the industry (Wednesday June 22nd and Thursday June 23rd). 

The organizers of the CLT 16 are the Unión Internacional de Telecomunicaciones (UIT) (International Telecommunications Union), the Communications and Transportation Secretariat of Mexico (SCT, for its acronym in Spanish), CAF, Development Bank of Latin America, the GSMA (global association of the whole mobile ecosystem), and the Asociación Interamericana de Empresas de Telecomunicaciones (ASIET) (Inter-American Association of Telecommunications Companies).

The event is also supported by organizations such as the Instituto Federal de Telecomunicaciones de México (IFT) (Federal Telecommunications Institute of Mexico), Latin America & Caribbean Network Information Centre (LACNIC), Internet Society (ISOC), and the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN).

With the convergence and collaboration of the main organizations and associations of the digital ecosystem, the meeting is a new opportunity to promote dialogue toward a common agenda that would allow the closing of the Digital Gap, and would open a path toward the construction of a Single Digital Market in the region. 

For more information and registration, please visit the official web site of the event: http://www.clt2016.org/.

More information

Headquarter: Casa Magna Marriott Cancun Hotel & Resort

Press registration: www.clt2016.org/#!registro-prensa/sqj6y

Event hashtag :#CLT16

Organizers' Twitter:@AgendaCAF  @asiet_lat  @GSMALatam  @SCT_mx @ITU