Collaboration between Europe and Latin America on Cloud Computing
A high-level meeting and conference, entitled ‘Fostering cloud computing in Europe and Latin America’ was recently organised by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) and the European Commission, with the support of the CAF-Development Bank of Latin America, the Chilean Under-Secretariat of Telecommunications, País Digital Foundation, and the Santiago Chamber of Commerce.
Cloud computing is fundamental for reducing the costs of providing services and capital expenditure. It helps new companies, especially small ones, because they need to invest less on equipment during start-up phases. Recent estimates for the European Union, the United States and Latin American countries, such as Argentina and Brazil, show that the mass use of cloud computing could help to create tens of thousands of SMEs, as well as hundreds of thousands of jobs.
During the conference, officials summed up the conclusions of the high-level meeting by presenting a common position paper – ‘Facing challenges together: Collaboration between Europe and Latin America on cloud computing’ – and announced the creation of a forum consisting of four EU-ECLAC working groups to share experiences and debate and formulate policies to take advantage of synergies between European and Latin American efforts to foster further cloud computing take-up (ECLAC report).
The event in the Chilean capital Santiago provided a unique opportunity for discussion and networking among ‘information society’ stakeholders, including representatives of European and Latin America countries, EU institutions, business leaders, policy-makers, civil society, industry, and citizens.
The next EU-ECLAC meeting is envisaged in autumn in Portugal.