Media Center

Press Advisory

Ministers and High Authorities to Discuss Regional Challenges of Electronic Government in San Jose, Costa Rica

Regional challenges of e-government, open data, social networks, cloud computing and mobile government will be the main issues of the Second Meeting of Ministers and Fourth of High Authorities of Electronic Government of Latin America and the Caribbean, co-organized by the Organization of American States (OAS), to be held in San Jose, Costa Rica on November 26 and 27 at the request of members of the Network of E-government Leaders of Latin America and the Caribbean (Red Gealc).

The President of Costa Rica, Laura Chinchilla, the Secretary of Political Affairs of the OAS, Kevin Casas-Zamora, the Representative of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) in Costa Rica, Fernando Quevedo, the President of the South Korean Agency NIA, Seangtae Kim, and the Canadian Ambassador to Costa Rica, Wendy Drukier, will all take part in the inauguration of the meeting on the morning of Monday the 26th.

The event is organized by the Department for Effective Public Management of the OAS, the IDB, the International Center for Research and Development of Canada (IDRC) and the government of Costa Rica, which will serve as host. The meeting will bring together government officials from 29 countries in the region, representatives of South Korea, researchers, specialists and officials from international organizations such as the IDB, OAS, ECLAC, UNDESA and the World Economic Forum.

In discussions prior to the meeting, the OAS Secretary for Political Affairs said that "the great challenge of e-government is that politicians at all levels of government (national, provincial and municipal) understand what is at stake in their societies regarding this topic. That they understand that development has come to support their social, educational or safety agenda." Casas-Zamora also stressed that "the productive collaboration between the OAS and the IDRC has made it possible to bring together in San Jose the leading experts in the most important issues on the agenda of e-governance in the region, like Ken Cochrane, former CIO of the government of Canada."

For her part, the President of Costa Rica said "showing the progress made in e-government in Latin America and the Caribbean will enrich our efforts to continue achieving our individual objectives as countries and common objectives as a region."

The meeting is part of the work plan of the Network of E-government Leaders of Latin America and the Caribbean (Red Gealc) established eight years ago and since consolidated as a platform for the generation and exchange of knowledge among the electronic government leaders of Latin America and the Caribbean.

For more information:http://www.oas.org/es/sap/dgpe/

Reference: AVI-236/12