2023-08-04 19:16:52
The positive impact of the digital age, but also the challenges it implies to guarantee the inclusion of the entire society in the nations of Latin America, were highlighted by the sectoral vice president of Science, Technology, Education and Health of Venezuela, Gabriela Jiménez, during the Ninth India-Latin America Conclave, which takes place in New Delhi.
“The digital era and its processes have a positive impact on life, the world economy, they are great opportunities for job creation, entrepreneurship and innovation, he said, but they are also moments of great challenges to guarantee the inclusion of the entire society of our region, with particularities; a multi and multicultural region, she warned.
“We know that the challenges in terms of digital transformation, artificial intelligence, Big Data, quantum computing, and industry 4.0 require definite efforts in our Latin American and Caribbean region to diversify our economic processes, but, above all, to guarantee a future ahead. to our young region”, he added.
According to the deputy head, more than 50 percent of the Latin American and Caribbean population “is a woman and a child, therefore, the challenge for our region is to generate capacities in inclusive educational infrastructures that allow training in information technology and information of information to our youth and women.
Cooperation is needed
The importance of digital technologies “closing inequalities” and not widening social gaps has already been highlighted by UNCTAD (United Nations Conference on Trade and Development).
During a speech delivered before the intergovernmental group of experts on Trade and the Digital Economy in May, Rebeca Grynspan, head of Unctad, considered that digital technologies based on data are an important tool to help advance the 2030 Agenda. But for this , he warned, “urgent and collective” action is needed.
In terms of sustainable development, he considered that there are technologies to save the 2030 Agenda, but they are not accessible; especially where they are most needed, that is, in the countries of the Global South.
Nearly 60 percent of the world is connected to the Internet, but only 20 percent of the population of less developed countries is part of that group.
“While in some countries 80 percent of Internet users shop online, in many developing countries this figure is less than 10 percent,” he lamented, clarifying that within countries there are significant divisions between areas rural and urban, and between men and women.
Grynspan stressed that data is deepening already existing digital divides and argued that these divides are more stark in terms of who can benefit from the data-driven digital economy.
The United States and China, he said, together account for half of the world’s hyperscale data centers, plus they have the highest rates of 5G usage, 94 percent of total AI funding, 70 percent of the top researchers on that intelligence and 90 percent of the market capitalization of the largest digital platforms.
Raw data, he warned, is meaningless unless it is aggregated and processed into digital intelligence to be used for business or social purposes, and this process is reciprocal: there can be no digital intelligence without data.
For this reason, he pointed out, to promote development, value must be added to the data.
Grynspan insisted that for data to serve the 2030 Agenda, innovative thinking is needed to enable more effective policymaking, with the participation of all stakeholders, both nationally and internationally, and urged multiplying the potential of data Data-driven digital development with effective digital governance.
All this, he stressed, must be done through international cooperation and on the principles of the UN initiatives, which advocate multilateralism and multisectoral alliances.
With information from Telesur and the UN website
Cover photo: Taken from the World Bank website
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