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During  a Training Seminar on Scientific Journalism organized by OAS in Buenos Aires, the FIRST project had the chance of interviewing Mr. Jorge Duran, Science and Technology Officer of the OAS, in order to inform about the Latin American Technology Platform set up and to know the possible links between OAS and the FIRST Project.

FIRST: FOR the OAS ICT is a key driver for equality, development, social inclusion. Why?

DURAN: The OAS has mandates and one of its missions is to promote democracy, social inclusion and democratic governance.  In order to achieve this you need to be able to communicate ideas, policies and support to the population. And of course we know that Information and Communication Technologies are the way to do that. And this is why it is very important for OAS as well as many other organizations: to Promote access to the digital era information; Not only that but in addition to that , ICT provides access to information of all such of sources, like political issues, education, science, Technology, Innovation, new ideas and, most important perhaps, political participation by the people.

FIRST: OAS has promoted the creation of LACCIR, so about ICT R&D? What is the position of OAS?

DURAN: It is fully supported, as a  matter of fact, the OAS houses, the Inter-American Telecommunication Commission (CITEL) , which of course is involved not in the Implementation of the actual technologies, but in the regulation and the norms and standards that should be adopted, according to those set  by the International Telecommunications Union, based in Europe.

The  executive secretary of CITEL, Clovis Batista is on the board of directors of LACCIR. And we support that University collaborative efforts to further communications and development.

FIRST: The goal of FIRST is creating a LATP, so we can establish a net inside LA, but also to link LA with EU.

Duran: One of the things that we are doing and we are continuing to support is in the high performance of Communication Networks; there is a network that is called Red CLARA, and of course we are again on that. Just recently, last month in September we had the meeting of the Inter-American Commission on Science and Technology, and Clara was one of our speaker’s guests. The position is that, while a lot of work has been done to connect the capitals of the countries in Latin American and the Caribbean, there are much to be done to connect the rural areas on high speed.

FIRST: One thing is cooperating inside Latin American, but another one is having cooperation with Europe, what would the experience, the benefits of cooperating in projects of R&D ICT ?

Duran: I know that the US and Canada are involved and both in these industrial economies have cooperated with the OAS continuously on this. For instance, I myself handle a budget from the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), and the Department of Economic Trade and Development, where the office of Science and Technology and Innovation is located, manages several Communication Internet networks funded by CIDA to promote development, education and support competitiveness.

Now, there is more at this point since the technology as a means to an end, rather than focusing on the technology itself as we did 20 years ago, when it was very necessary to do. Now technology is pretty much established, we have WEB 2.0 out there, everybody is using it. So the OAS has pulled back a little bit from supporting the actual development of technology and focusing more on using that technology to promote development.

FIRST: The practical issue of this project is gathering Industry and Academic Sector… what is OAS position?

Is to continuously promote Sabato’s Triangle, which is the strategically union between Government, Academia and Industry. As a matter of fact, we are about to launch a program called Engineering  Education for Competitiveness, which aims to improve, modernize and update  the curricular programs of the Engineering  degrees in Latin America and the Caribbean : Civil, Industrial, Mechanical, Chemical, Electrical..

In addition to the actual study programs, part of the project includes promoting closer, better and more efficient links between Universities and Academia on the one hand, and Businesses and Industries on the other to create jobs.  This alliances will also encourage industry to help guide research and the Programs so the graduates from these degrees have the necessary skills and competencies that Industry needs.  Building capacities on entrepreneurship skills among the students is also an important element to bring Academia and Industry closer.  So we fully support that.

FIRST: Any message for LATP?

I think that you guys are doing a great job and just keep working at it, we are there to help you  were we can.

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