Colombia is today a digital country

Colombia is today a digital country. Colombia has experienced a real digital revolution over the last eight years, which has allowed not only all the municipalities in the country to be connected, but also the fact that technology is really having an impact on the country. citizens' lives.

Today, a group of Chocoanos can sell fresh fish on the Internet or that some Amazonas artisans can advertise their products via social networks or that there are already close to 8 millions of people who have connected to the Internet for free via the social network. Zonas WiFi shows that we are complying and today we have a digital country, "said Minister of Information and Communications Technologies, Juan Sebastián Rozo, during the accountability of this portfolio.

The official showed the management and results of the entity in three main areas: infrastructure, property and the digital economy, and pointed out that the number of broadband Internet connections increased from 2.6 million in 2010 to 30.4 million this year

Infrastructure

In terms of infrastructure, over these eight years, 287 municipalities were connected to 1,108 throughout the country, including those with more difficult access to the Amazon, Orinoquia and Chocoano Pacific.

Similarly, different scenarios have been deployed for Colombians to access technology. " installed 7.142 Vive Digital Kiosks have allowed Colombians in rural areas with more than 100 inhabitants to have space for Internet access and ICT training. Similarly, in cities, we have installed 938 Vive digital points, so that the community can acquire skills for the digital economy, these will now be administered by the territorial entities, "said the minister. Rozo

. , the goal was exceeded and 1,784 free WiFi zones were installed for people in the most overcrowded places of 600 municipalities in all regions of Colombia. Through this strategy, citizens can access the Internet for free from their cell phones or tablets.

For the youngest, 2.8 million Computadores para Educar computers were delivered, which helped reduce the digital divide. public institutions, since it has grown from 24 children for each computer to two for each at the present time. "The most important is that in the educational institutions where we arrived with the offer of this program, we have succeeded in reducing early school leaving and increasing the number of young people entering the school. higher education, "said the official.

Ownership

The Ministry of Communications and Transportation has proposed to train full digital citizens so that they can take advantage of the technological infrastructure for their benefit. For this reason, he has trained and certified 2.3 million people in skills ranging from digital literacy to e-commerce.

Similarly, he managed to reach 9.2 million people, both face-to-face and virtually. I am convinced that ICTs enable citizens to prevent the risks inherent in the network while encouraging digital coexistence.

"We are also very proud to have put ICT at the service of people with visual and hearing impairments. , to facilitate their communication. Thanks to programs such as Relay Center, ConVerTIC and Cine Para Todos, we have made Colombia a more inclusive country, "said Minister Rozo

. On the other hand, 78% of citizens 88% of businesses use ICT to interact with the state. Thanks to the strategy of the digital government, today 53% of procedures and services are digitized

Digital Economy

For Colombia to move towards a digital economy, it was necessary to support talent training to face these new challenges. For this reason, thanks to the Talent IT initiative, grants have been awarded to train 19,627 Colombians in areas related to information technology (IT). With this, the gap in professionals in this sector has been reduced by 62%.

Similarly, the country's computer industry has been strengthened, the number of companies in the sector rising from 1,800 in 2013 to 6,096 in 2017 and sales they went from $ 5.9 trillion to $ 13.5 trillion during the same period.

"We focused on micro, small and medium enterprises to start their digital transformation, since we went from 7% to 74% of companies connected to the Internet, 194,000 entrepreneurs were trained in the use ICTs and 17 Digital Transformation Centers have been created, "said Minister Rozo Rengifo.

Finally, the institutional framework was prepared for Colombia of this new economy, not only with the transformation of the badistant ministries into entities of the digital economy, connectivity and digitization, but with the creation of the Intersectoral Commission for the Digital Economy and the Observatory's start this issue.