Your Excellency, Mr Juan Carlos Duarte Duré, President of the National Telecommunication Commission of Paraguay, distinguished delegates, ladies and gentlemen, it is a great pleasure and honor to welcome you to the Regional Preparatory Meeting for the Americas Region in preparation for the World Telecommunication Development Conference 2025. I would like to thank CONATEL for hosting this fourth Regional Preparatory Meeting.
Last year saw the adoption of the Pact for the Future, the Global Digital Compact and the Declaration on Future Generations. For now, I am delighted with our great progress towards the implementation of the Kigali Action Plan, which has been made possible by the broad range of stakeholders partnering with us across the world, as documented in the State of Digital Development and Trends report launched at yesterday's Regional Development Forum.
The Americas region has made great steps forward in the ICT sector in the past three years, and I am proud of the key role ITU has played, including in promoting digital transformation in the region’s Least Developed Countries, Small Island Developing States and Landlocked Developing Countries. Of course, Paraguay itself is facing the challenges of being a Landlocked Developing Country.
Ladies and gentlemen, over the past two years we achieved a lot. We implemented the digital transformation kit in Paraguay, El Salvador, the Dominican Republic, Panama, Honduras, Guatemala and Uruguay, increasing the digital capabilities of more than 500 young people and businesswomen. And we implemented regulatory innovation projects in the Dominican Republic and Central American countries including Belize, Panama, Honduras, El Salvador, Costa Rica and Guatemala.
These projects have been implemented thanks to the cooperation of the European Union. This will make Central America a hub of innovation and regulatory modernization, and an example for other countries in the region.
We have also undertaken capacity development projects for farmers in El Salvador, projects with Colombia for the .co domain strategy and digital terrestrial television implementation and cybersecurity projects for the creation of CIRTs in numerous countries, strengthening the capacities of Member States to face challenges through Cyberdrills and implementing our Child Online Protection initiative in several countries.
I would also like to highlight the many initiatives that have been implemented in terms of digital inclusion, all based on the regional initiatives approved in Kigali. These include Girls Can Code, Cyberwomen, capacity development for the indigenous population and special interventions in the Chaco region here in Paraguay.
More on our achievements is found in Document 2 of this RPM, which we will shortly present. I look forward to your engagement and to our discussions. Thank you!
