23-26 Nov 2020 Santiago, Chile | Intergovernmental meetings
The role of digital technologies as critical instruments for alleviating the effects of the crisis stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic will be analyzed during the Seventh Ministerial Conference on the Information Society, to be held on November 23-26, 2020 and organized jointly by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) and the Government of Ecuador.
At the meeting, which will take place virtually, delegates from the region’s countries will debate the policy priorities on digital matters for the next two years and will aim to approve the eLAC 2022 Digital Agenda for Latin America and the Caribbean.
In this way, the event’s participants will seek to further the regional process that began 15 years ago as an articulating space in which countries define a shared vision regarding the use of digital technologies and their impact on development.
Ecuador will take over the Presidency of the mechanism from Colombia – which hosted the Sixth Ministerial Conference in 2018 – and will chair the various meetings of the heads of delegation from participating countries.
During the four-day gathering, attendees will address such issues as the role of digital technologies amid the pandemic and the economic reactivation, digital inclusion as a critical instrument for reducing inequality, and the importance of digital transformation in the productive arena. In addition, special sessions will be held about data innovation and measuring the digital economy, data protection and cyber-security, the surge in e-commerce during the pandemic, opportunities for women in the digital era, and the digitalization of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs).
The conference will draw the participation of experts such as Mischa Dohler, a Professor in wireless communications at King's College London, along with high-level government officials, representatives of the private sector and the technical community, and specialists on digital matters.
