ICTs in Latin America: An overview

Abstract

 In this paper, the state-of-the-art on the field of Information and Communications Technolo-

gies (ICTs) in Latin America is presented. Its main contribution consists in the localization of

common objectives for the majority of the countries in the region. Although the countries are

very heterogeneous from the cultural and geographical perspectives, there are many common

factors that can be exploited in order to develop their economies. At first sight, Brazil or Mex-

ico with their huge populations and big economies are giants compared to other countries like

Bolivia or Costa Rica. However there are many common problems in all of them that can be

addressed with a common strategy. An important question that this presentation tries to answer

is the ICT profile of Latin America: consumer or producer. Data from the World Bank on ICT

infrastructure and from the academic sector on the actual situation of the R&D activities in the

region are analyzed to answer this question.