Actividades latinoamericanas en el espacio ultraterrestre en el siglo XXI: una actualización

En el siglo XXI, los países latinoamericanos han hecho esfuerzos significativos para avanzar en sus programas espaciales. Estos esfuerzos han abarcado desde una indagatoria sobre la instalación de un sistema de satélites, como es el caso en Colombia, hasta el lanzamiento de satélites con la ayuda de gobiernos extranjeros, en el caso de Brasil, Argentina y Bolivia. En todos estos casos, la falta de un marco jurídico coherente que apoye un programa espacial sólido que proporcione comunicaciones por satélite a las poblaciones más vulnerables es uno de los desafíos más apremiantes. El Consejo Asesor de Generación Espacial (SGAC) podría resolver este problema mediante un proyecto unificador que pondrá todas las mentes y desarrolladores en el objetivo común de alcanzar la autonomía espacial para América Latina.In the twenty-first century, Latin American countries have made significant efforts to advance their space programs. These efforts have ranged from inquiring about setup of a satellite system, as is the case in Colombia, to launching satellites with the aid of foreign governments, in the case of Brazil, Argentina and Bolivia. In all these cases, the lack of a coherent legal framework that supports a solid space program that provides satellite communications to the most vulnerable populations is one of the most pressing challenges. The Space Generation Advisory Council (SGAC) could solve this problem in the form of a unifying project that will put all minds and developers to work towards the common goal of achieving space autonomy for Latin America

The changing role of the international community in the MDG achievement in Bolivia

Millennium Development Goal number 8 (MDG8) concerns those external flows (Official Development Assistance, trade and debt relief) that ought to help developing countries achieve the MDGs by 2015. This paper reviews the role of these MDG8-related external flows in the case of Bolivia. Riding on high international prices for its major exports, and on fiscal expansion, remittances and debt forgiveness, Bolivia has experienced solid economic performance in the past few years. This economic performance coupled with the recent increase in social public expenditures by the government has increased the likelihood that the country will achieve all of the MDGs by 2015, except probably for MDG 2. These advances have been achieved in a period of radical change in Bolivia’s dependence on MDG8-related external flows. The composition of external finance in public expenditure has shifted from domination by ODA and debt forgiveness in the first half of the decade to domination by trade, mainly through revenues from hydrocarbon exports. Our findings support the idea that the provision of additional financial resources may not be the priority with regard to organising support to MDG achievements. Spending efficiently and effectively seems to be a more important area for support in Bolivia. As far as trade is concerned, Bolivia already enjoys good market access in its main markets, thus better access through lower non-tariff barriers may be more relevant than improving access in terms of tariffs. Moreover access to markets would be easier if Bolivia were better integrated with world markets, with its regional neighbours in particular. This calls for the support of the international community through aid for trade (AfT), which has instead been worryingly dwindling in recent years. Finally, we argue that MDG8 could be pursued in Bolivia through support for improving access to technology and access to affordable drugs.Bolivia, MDGs, aid, trade, debt

Broadband adoption in Latin American countries: does geographic proximity matter?

Este trabajo analiza si la proximidad geográfica entre países puede ser un factor significativo que explique la adopción de banda ancha, tanto fija como móvil, en América Latina. Para responder a la cuestión si los efectos de vecindad podrían impactar sobre la penetración de banda ancha en un país, se estimó un modelo de panel de datos Durbin espacial para el periodo 2011 a 2015, aplicado a 18 países latinoamericanos. En particular, sus resultados muestran efectos espaciales positivos para banda ancha fija (lo mismo se confirmó para Europa en anteriores estudios) pero efectos espaciales negativos en la adopción de banda ancha móvil.This paper analyzes whether geographic proximity among countries can be a significant factor in explaining fixed and mobile broadband adoption in Latin America. To address the research question if neighbor effects could impact on the broadband penetration of a country, we estimate a Spatial Durbin panel data model over the period 2011-2015, for 18 Latin American countries. Results obtained suggest a significant spatial effect of the broadband penetration. In particular, results show positive spatial effects for fixed broadband (confirming previous studies in Europe) but negative spatial effects for mobile broadband adoption.Fil: Alderete, Maria Veronica. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Bahía Blanca. Instituto de Investigaciones Económicas y Sociales del Sur. Universidad Nacional del Sur. Departamento de Economía. Instituto de Investigaciones Económicas y Sociales del Sur; Argentin

The global information technology report 2014

Executive summary When The Global Information Technology Report (GITR) and the Networked Readiness Index (NRI) were created more than 13 years ago, the attention of decision makers was focused on how to develop strategies that would allow them to benefit from what Time Magazine had described as “the new economy”: a new way of organizing and managing economic activity based on the new opportunities that the Internet provided for businesses. At present, the world is slowly emerging from one of the worst financial and economic crises in decades, and policymakers, business leaders, and civil society are looking into new opportunities that can consolidate growth, generate new employment, and create business opportunities. Information and communication technologies (ICTs) continue to rank high on the list as one of the key sources of new opportunities to foster innovation and boost economic and social prosperity, for both advanced and emerging economies. For more than 13 years, the NRI has provided decision makers with a useful conceptual framework to evaluate the impact of ICTs at a global level and to benchmark the ICT readiness and usage of their economies

Contribution of IT through Microfinance: Establishing Socio-Economic Sustainability in Developing Economies

In this paper, we explore the economic impact of IT in developing countries through the lens of peer-to-peer (P2P) microfinance. The results of a comprehensive content analysis indicate that through P2P microfinance, IT is in fact positively impacting the livelihoods of citizens and economies in developing nations around the world

The state of broadband 2015: Broadband as a foundation for sustainable development

Every year, the ITU/UNESCO Broadband Commission for Digital Development ‘State of Broadband’ report takes the pulse of the global broadband industry and explores progress in broadband connectivity. This year’s report finds mixed messages about the growth of ICTs and the global state of broadband. Although strong growth rates continue for mobile broadband and Facebook usage, and mobile cellular subscriptions exceeded 7 billion for the first time during 2015, growth in both mobile cellular subscriptions and Internet usage has slowed sharply. The UN Broadband Commission’s 2011 targets have not been achieved by the target date of 2015 and seem unlikely to be achieved before 2020. Likewise, the milestone of four billion Internet users is unlikely to be surpassed before 2020. The growth in Facebook subscribers is now outpacing growth in the Internet. Internet growth By end 2015, some 3.2 billion people will be online, equating to over 43.4% of the total world population, and up from 2.9 billion a year earlier (almost 40.6% of the population). In the developing world, Internet penetration will surpass 35.3% by the end of 2015; penetration will still be under 10% at 9.5% in the UN-designated Least Developed Countries, however. Even though Internet penetration is approaching saturation in the developed world, with 82.2% of the population online, the global target of 60% set by the Broadband Commission in 2011, to be achieved by 2015, is unlikely to be achieved before 2021 at the earliest. Internet user penetration in the developing world is unlikely to achieve the Broadband Commission target of 50% before 2020. By the end of 2015, there will still be 57% of the world’s population – or four billion people – still offline. Household Internet access in developed countries is close to saturation, with more than 81.3% of households connected. The proportion of households in the developing world with Internet access has increased from 31.5% at the end of 2014 to over 34.1% a year later – still well short of the Broadband Commission target of 40% by 2015. Household connectivity figures mask strong disparities – fewer than 7% of households in LDCs have access, while in sub-Saharan Africa only 1 in 9 households is connected. According to Point Topic, Asia has the largest total number of broadband-connected homes, with nearly as many in total as Europe and the Americas combined. The gender gap in Internet users is proving stubbornly persistent, with an estimated 200 million more men online than women as recently as 2013; one major problem is that sex-disaggregated data are not yet widely reported by national governments and statistics agencies. Mobile growth The mobile industry is growing strongly, but unevenly. ITU forecasts that the milestone of seven billion mobile cellular subscriptions will be exceeded by end 2015, equivalent to a global penetration rate of 97 subscriptions per 100 people. ITU also estimates that there will be a total of almost 3.5 billion mobile broadband subscriptions by end 2015. Industry analysts predict 6.5 billion mobile broadband (3G/4G/5G) subscriptions by 2019, making mobile broadband the fastest growing ICT service in history. Asia-Pacific now accounts for half of all mobile broadband subscriptions, up from just under 45% at the end of 2014. In January 2015, China Mobile became the world’s largest mobile operator by number of subscribers. The rapid expansion of Asia-Pacific is squeezing other world regions in terms of their mobile broadband market share – Europe and the Americas saw declining proportional shares of mobile broadband subscriptions from the end of 2014 to the end of 2015, despite absolute increases in subscription numbers. Smartphones now dominate the mobile device market, and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future. Ericsson forecasts that the number of smartphones in service could exceed ‘basic’ phones by 2016. While developed markets become saturated in terms of total mobile penetration, analysts still see plenty of room for growth, with only an estimated one third of all mobile subscriptions currently associated with a smartphone. In hindsight, the year 2014 is likely to prove a tipping point as the year in which growth in ‘3G’ services began to slow, as growth in ‘4G’ services accelerated. Continued in report. &nbsp

The state of broadband 2012: achieving digital inclusion for all

With this Report, the Broadband Commission expands awareness and understanding of the importance of broadband networks, services, and applications for generating economic growth and achieving social progress. High-speed affordable broadband connectivity to the Internet is essential to modern society, offering widely recognized economic and social benefits (Annex 1). The Broadband Commission for Digital Development promotes the adoption of broadband-friendly practices and policies for all, so everyone can take advantage of the benefits offered by broadband. With this Report, the Broadband Commission expands awareness and understanding of the importance of broadband networks, services, and applications for generating economic growth and achieving social progress. It has been written collaboratively, drawing on insightful and thought-provoking contributions from our leading array of Commissioners and their organizations, foremost in their fields

Internal and external factors of competitiveness in the middle-income countries

The diverse group of middle-income countries (MIC) is composed by some economies with an active behavior in exports of technology-intensive goods that is strictly better than the group average. One of the factors explaining such a result is the improvement of their national technological capabilities that affects the dynamism of their productive and trade structure generating competitiveness gains. There are grounded reasons to think that this is also a consequence of external effects and the potential impacts that both trade and foreign direct investments (FDI) flows generate in those economies where foreign companies have contributed to the industrialization and modernization of their productive systems. In this paper, we analyze the possibilities of integration of the MIC economies into the dynamic high-tech markets as the interplay between the role of FDI and their ability for the absorption and creation of technology. We will observe based upon empirical analysis with panel data (1998-2005), what is the relative importance of internal and external factors for the improvement of the international competitiveness in these developing economies.competitiveness, FDI, high-tech, middle income countries, competitividad, IDE, alta tecnología, países de renta media