E. CLOSING SESSION

Closing remarks from Mr. Omar Halim, Executive Director of NAM CSSTC 

Now is the time to conclude this workshop and we as NAM CSSTC are very happy. In the first place, we are very pleased to provide an opportunity to Latin America and the Caribbean Region to seat face to face to exchange experiences and then from each, we expect to continue be in touch with yourselves and with us to expand the horizons of your work in your respective countries with the rich experiences from the others.  

We hope that you will spread the experiences in this particular meeting with your colleagues and friends back in your countries, especially for those who didn’t attend this particular meeting, not only to extend the horizon of what we learned here from the others, but also to tell them about us, NAM CSSTC and what our concerns are related to ICT development for developing countries. We hope you will encourage your colleagues and Governments to be focused on the digital divide issues and how to measure the E-Readiness level, because that will be one way of encouraging focusing in the topic. Once revealed that the Governments are focused on this, then there can be interest by the Government side to try to improve the E-Readiness level of your countries. If we can help please tell us and we will support you. 

I would like to ask for your suggestions, and you can still forward or contact us if you wish, on what you recommend that Governments in Latin America and the Caribbean region can do in the future in order to improve ICT development. The second thing is what NAM CSSTC, from your point of view, can do to follow up this meeting because as I said earlier, we are prepared to follow up this kind of meetings until something concrete happens on the ground with regard to ICT development in your respective countries.

We also request you to mention about the interest of NAM CSSTC in other spheres like Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs). It is very much in line with ICT because we now talk about E-Commerce and how it can help SMEs. Please mention this to your colleagues in the Government, NGOs and   institutions that deal with SMEs and microfinance programmes, because in the near future we will work on these programmes. If there is someone interested in these topics, please contact us.

You are now part of the NAM CSSTC community; please feel free to contact us, to share with us your ideas or questions. Particularly to share with us your ideas to generate suggestions on what could be done to further in the development of ICT in your countries and developing countries in Latin America and the Caribbean region

I would like to repeat as my last point, as I mentioned before to English speaking countries in the Caribbean and Spanish speaking countries in the region. If you feel that when you talk to your colleagues whether ICT development or E-Readiness levels of your country or region cannot be improved further, please ask them to come to us. We can do two things, first we can provide expertise as I mentioned before and second, to provide expertise for training. We have not really made specific arrangements for the Latin American region countries about training in ICT, but we have done it in several countries in Asia who could gladly help you in these issues if you really need it. Please feel free to propose specific training programmes and to contact us on how we can help you in these issues.

I would like to use this opportunity to thank you participants from different countries of  Latin America and the Caribbean region for your time and your participation in this first meeting we had in the region. We hope we can have more regional or sub regional meetings in Latin America and the Caribbean in the future.

I would also like to thank Ms. Indarti Primora for her great contribution to this workshop. And finally we would like to thank the Guatemalan Government for making this meeting possible.

Thank you very much. Bon Voyage to your respective countries and please remember that you are part of us and feel free to contact us any time.

Closing remarks from Mr. Rene Lavidalie, IT Director of the Planning and Programming Secretariat of Guatemala (SEGEPLAN)

Well, ladies and gentlemen. We have arrived to the end of this workshop on “E-Readiness in Latin America and the Caribbean Region”. Once again, on behalf of the Guatemalan Government, we would like to thank all international participants who where able to join us and share experiences with us. I would also like to thank NAM CSSTC for its support to be able to carry out this workshop in our country. I am certain that this is the first one of many we are going to have in our region.

I personally would like to thank the Board of Directors of NAM CSSTC, especially Mr. Omar Halim, Mr. Achmad Rofi´ie and Mr. Subandiyo for their support in order to carry out this workshop. Thank you very much.

I would also like to thank the National Science and Technology Secretariat (SENACYT) that also collaborated with us, particularly the Information Technologies Commission, whose endorsement made this workshop seminar possible. Thank you all.

I would also like to thank the staff in charge of the logistics of SEGEPLAN because without their support, this workshop wouldn’t have been possible. Of course we would like to thank all our local participants. We are sure that you will take back to your organizations a different perspective and concept on how important it is to promote ICT issues in our country.

Once again thank you all. I personally thank you for your attendance and to conclude this workshop I ask for a round of applause for all of us.

Thank you.