ITU Connect Americas Summit seeks USD 53 Billion for inter-American
connectivity and digital inclusion
ICTs declared “engines of economic prosperity and
sustainable development”
Panama City, 19 July 2012 – The ITU Connect Americas Summit
wrapped up today with a declaration from Heads of State and Government from
Latin America and the Caribbean aimed at mobilizing “the human, financial and
technical resources needed to connect the unconnected and to strengthen the role
of ICT as the engine of economic prosperity and sustainable development, as well
as poverty reduction in the Americas region”.
The two-day Summit brought together Heads of State and Government and
Ministers along with leaders of regional development banks and organizations,
international agencies, the ICT industry, non-governmental organizations and
academia from 36 countries in the
region. The
Communiqué issued
today renewed regional commitments to promote specific “measures of solidarity
and assistance” as priority actions for less developed countries in the region,
“with particular emphasis on Haiti, the small island developing States and other
countries which face particular obstacles in developing their information and
knowledge societies”.
ITU Secretary-General Hamadoun Touré noted that mobile cellular penetration
has surpassed the 100% threshold in Latin America and the Caribbean while 30
million mobile broadband subscriptions were added by end 2011. The percentage of
households with Internet access also continues to increase, reaching 29 per
cent. “The Americas is a dynamic region full of potential to achieve regional
inter-connectivity and reach the benefits of ICTs to everyone even in the
remotest communities and under-served urban areas,” Dr Touré said. “And
commitments announced today at the Connect Americas Summit will intensify
efforts in the coming years to make the transition to a true knowledge-based
information society that lies at the heart of achieving the broader goals of
sustainable development.”
Connecting the Americas
The Connect Americas Summit aims at widespread broadband connectivity in the
Americas region and ‘digital inclusion’ to enable social and economic
development through affordable access to information and communication
technologies (ICT) and services for all, while paying attention to the special
needs of indigenous peoples, persons with disabilities, women, girls, youth and
children.
The Summit focused on the five regional priorities for the Americas region
for the period 2011-2014 adopted at the World Telecommunication Development
Conference in Hyderabad, India in 2010:
- Develop telecommunication and ICT infrastructure, covering a
complete range of access levels within the region
- Adopt national regulatory frameworks which help close
existing gaps in ICT development, while addressing evolving
needs, including those brought about by an increasingly
converged environment
- Establish effective and practical emergency communication
plans at the national and international levels
- Implement a smooth transitioning from analogue to
digital broadcasting
- Develop Internet Exchange Points at the local,
national and regional levels to reduce internet access costs, as
well as to enable the provision of new services
- Promote the use of ICTs as a tool for development by
creating human and institutional capacities, particularly in
rural and under-served urban areas, with special emphasis on
indigenous peoples and persons with disabilities
Commitments to the tune of USD 53.4 billion were called for at the Connect
Americas Summit to fund ICT projects aimed at infrastructure development and to
build next-generation networks, to safeguard them by strengthening cybersecurity,
to forge an enabling regulatory environment taking into account the needs of the
future, and build the necessary human capacity while addressing the global
challenges of our times, such as combatting climate change as well as mitigating
its impact by increasing the capacity to rapidly deploy emergency
telecommunications in the aftermath of natural disasters.
Brahima Sanou, Director of ITU’s Telecommunication Development Bureau, noted
that ITU was well positioned to translate the political commitment and
expectations of the regional leaders towards full-fledged interconnectivity. He
said, “ITU has a particular strength in forging creative partnerships. When we
harness this ability to our extensive networks among senior representatives in
government, the private sector and academia, which have been substantially
strengthened over recent days, this represents a massive force for constructive
change. I have every confidence that the region will rapidly succeed in
connecting the unconnected and bridge its digital divide.”
Regional and international organizations and banks, multinational companies
and non-governmental organizations among others entered into multi-million
dollar partnerships with governments while allowing for the diverse needs of the
countries in the region, including varying levels of telecommunication
development and market conditions.
Commitments made at the Connect Americas Summit are at
www.itu.int/ITU-D/connect/americas/commitments.asp
To name a few commitments announced at the Connect Americas Summit, the World
Bank and the Government of Nicaragua signed an agreement to provide USD 5
million financing to increase access to telecommunications services among more
than 200,000 rural inhabitants in Nicaragua; Intel announced its “3rd Billion Programme” to roll out broadband to transform education using Universal
Service Funds; ITU and HUG - the Geneva University Hospitals - will collaborate
on creating a Pan American Telemedicine Network to enable the deployment of
telemedicine services and tools along with IT-enabled diagnostic devices to
hospitals in remote areas of Latin America; ITU and the Real Madrid Foundation
announced a partnership to support social inclusion and integration of Youth
into Society by providing education and training in ICT and sports at school.
A follow-up mechanism will be implemented by ITU in collaboration with CITEL,
COMTELCA and CTU and other regional/sub-regional organizations with the aim of
building synergies and optimizing the use of resources. A tracking mechanism
will be established.
The Connect Americas Summit was hosted by the President of the Republic of
Panama H.E. Ricardo Martinelli Berrocal and organized by ITU in close
collaboration with the Inter-American Telecommunication Commission (CITEL), the
Comisión Técnica Regional de Telecomunicaciones (COMTELCA) and the Caribbean
Telecommunication Union (CTU).
For more information, see
www.itu.int/net/newsroom/connect/americas/2012/ or contact:
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Sanjay Acharya
Chief, Media Relations
and Public Information, ITU
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