#2024WCA: Panel—Digitizing the Americas

Speakers

• Marushka Chocobar, Special Advisor on Digital Transformation, Government of Peru
• Dominic Delmolino, Vice President, Technology, AWS
• Michelle S. Giuda, CEO, Krach Institute for Tech Diplomacy at Purdue
• Carlos Felipe Jaramillo, Vice President for Latin America and Caribbean, The World Bank
• Jackie Davalos, Bloomberg News (moderator)

"Latin America is a region that promises to be in most of the advanced region in digital transformation for the next years," said Marushka Chocobar of Peru during a panel about digitizing the Americas at the 54th Washington Conference on the Americas.

What does Latin America need to capitalize on the potential of new technologies? Dominic Delmolino of AWS spotlighted three key areas: infrastructure, digital capability, and a skilling of the population. On that last theme, Chocobar spotlighted Peru's effort to train and retain tech talent.

But this alone is not enough to spur digitization. When it comes to "seizing that opportunity and advancing the business case in Latin America, the key to that is not technology. The key to that is trusted technology," explained Michelle Giuda of the Krach Institute. She spoke on the need to have transparency and for private sector innovators and governments to partner closely together when it comes to new technologies, like AI.

Carlos Felipe Jaramillo of The World Bank outlined several worries he has for the region's digitization. To start, Latin America still has a ways to go to create more access to broadband and digital devices. And, more education is needed. "It is one thing is to be connected and another one is to adopt and to use the technology," he said.

Still, he remains optimistic about the potential of digitization: "I'm hoping that through digital technologies, we can find a way to do what we haven't been able to do for decades: address ... deep inequality," he said.