Fostering EU-Latin America ICT policy dialogue

Organized by the FORESTA project funded under the EU’s 7Th Framework Programme to support R&D cooperation between Latin America and Europe in the field of ICT, the conference ‘Fostering EU-Latin America ICT Policy Dialogue’ will take place in Brussels, Belgium, on Monday and Tuesday 28 and 29 November 2011. The event will be an important forum for European and Latin-American research stakeholders to discuss strategies to intensify cooperation in Information and Communication Technologies. It bring together stakeholders from ICT research, industry and industry federations, decision-makers, European and Latin-American research and innovation funding agencies, as well as SMEs and large companies from each region interested in cooperation with Latin America and with Europe.

‘Fostering EU-Latin America ICT Policy Dialogue’ event will use panels and round tables to elicit the insights of invited experts and inputs from the audience in order to develop strategic recommendations in support of a reinforced EU-LA ICT cooperation. The recommendations will be streamlined into a Joint Declaration that will be presented to representatives of the European Commission, the European Parliament and Latin-American governments in the closing session of the event to be held at the European Parliament.

Pro-Ideal and Pro-Ideal Plus partners will also actively participate at the event

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EU-Brazil Business Dialogue - A Digital Agenda for Brazil, 10 May 2011, Porto Alegre

The EU-Brazil Business Dialogue focused on the Digital Agenda will take place in Porto Alegre on 10 May 2011. The event will bring together senior politicians, policy makers and CEOs from Europe and Brazil to discuss ways of making progress in the Digital Agenda in both geographic areas and of strengthening cooperation.

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Download the Agenda

Successful Pro-Ideal Plus ICT Forum and Interactive Workshop in La Habana, Cuba

Organised by the PRO-IDEAL PLUS consortium and SOFTEL, an ICT Forum day discussing the importance of ICT brought together a broad range of key players in the ICT and Research and Development sector from both, Cuba and Europe. After introductory words of Ramón Ripoll, Vice Minister of Trade and Foreign Investment in Cuba and Javier Niño Pérez, Chargé d'Affaires a.i., EU Delegation to Cuba a presentation from Klaus Pendl, European Commission DG-INFSO, gave an overview on the European Commission perspective about the Cuba-EU cooperation in ICT Research and Development. The forum welcomed also speakers from ICT NCP, the Polytechnic Institute “J.A. Echevarría”, the Cuban chamber of commerce, CUBAENERGÍA, NEM and the European PRO-IDEAL PLUS partners.

The day after, potential ICT project partners had the opportunity to take part in a participative workshop "Safari"-style to learn about ICT programme issues. The co-creative event was designed and facilitated by the Italian team of FUTOUR. The Knowledge Safari workshops adopted innovative participatory methodologies that fostered networking, clustering, team building and knowledge sharing by stimulating connective intelligence and contactivity.

The complete presentation material, pictures and information of the events are now available on: http://www.pro-ideal.eu/ict_forum_cuba

EULARINET February 2011 Newsletter

EULARINET, the INCO coordination action, publishes its its February 2011 newsletter with an interesting article on the bi-regional (EU-LA) policy dialogue on science and technology (S&T).

4th Global Forum on Innovation & Technology Entrepreneurship

infoDev and its program partners within the Creating Sustainable Businesses in the Knowledge Economy program will organize the 4th Global Forum in Helsinki, Finland, which will be held from May 30th till June 2th 2011. infoDev looks to its global network of business incubators and global audience of innovation and entrepreneurship practitioners and stakeholders to be actively involved in helping to shape the Global Forum agenda.

Between 400 and 600 leaders, entrepreneurs, scholars and ICT experts from around the world are expected to participate this event. One of the main initiatives within this program is the development of new high growth ICT enterprises.

infoDev is a global partnership program in the World Bank Group of international development agencies that helps donors and developing countries use innovation and ICT to achieve economic growth, sustainable development and poverty reduction.

Strengthening the ICT policy dialogue between Europe and Latin America

On 20 September 2010, EMF and its Pro-Ideal project partners met with Latin American and Caribbean diplomats in Brussels. This meeting, hosted by the Argentine Mission, was a first step towards developing the policy dialogue between the European Union and Latin America in the field of ICT along the lines proposed in EMF's recent position paper "Towards an Inter-regional Digital Agenda between Latin America and Europe".

The two regions have common cultural interests and are economically compatible. The Latin American markets are currently expanding very strongly. Europe should support this expansion and help making it sustainable. Long-term partnerships should be developed in science, education, training, research, marketing and sales. The EU has taken many steps in the right direction through the EU-LAC Summits and the Science & Technology Agreements. EMF and its partners are now calling for a more focused and sector-specific approach in ICT, through the elaboration and implementation of a Joint Digital Agenda.
Download the EMF position paper