MIT TR - Colombia ICT Ecosystems - Innovation Policy Report - Rpt 2 - Mar 5 2014

GovernmentPolicyReport
AnInitiativeoftheICTMinistryofColombia
Published in 2014

TableofContents
Executive Summary 1
Background and Context 10
Poverty Alleviation/Social Development 15
Competitiveness 25
ICT & Industry 41
Environment: Talent & Institution 53
T
S D
U
ET
D
MinTIC Academy
Connecting Innovation Supply
and Demand
Building ICT Talent
Digital Rights
Developing Regional
Ecosystems
Strengthening Universities
Enterprise ICT Training
Demand Stimulation &
Discovery
These key icons represent concepts and cross-cutting themes throughout the report

MIT TECHNOLOGY REVIEW 3GOVERNMENT POLICY REPORT
Since 2010, Colombia’s Vive Digital Plan has served as a road map for transforming Colombia’s
ICT landscape and introducing “technology in the life of every Colombian.” By most accounts,
Vive Digital has been a great success, meeting its key objectives for improving ICT access
and achieving global accolades for its impacts and innovative programming. Today, nearly
every Colombian has the opportunity to use the latest ICTs and to fully participate in life as a
digital citizen. When the Vive Digital plan was originally unveiled, many Colombians did not
understand the potential power of ICT, or else they lacked access to key technologies, such as
PCs, tablets, or smartphones. Small pockets of innovation existed, but the average Colombian
was not an active user of the Internet and other ICT technologies. As such, Vive Digital rightly
focused on issues of access, that is, how to ensure that Colombians had access to ICTs and their
many benefits.
These access programs have made progress, but we now know that simply ensuring access
is not enough. Colombia still faces many challenges in terms of ICT deployment and use.
Homegrown ICT capacities are fairly limited and the local industry is dominated by foreign
multinationals and a tiny base of local small and medium-size enterprises (SMEs). Many SMEs
have limited access to the Internet or other ICT tools. ICT-focused firms lack resources and
capacity to develop new innovations or compete in global markets. A strong ICT innovation
ecosystem does not yet exist and new firms lack access to skilled business service providers or
to effective partners in universities, local governments, or key national agencies. Finally, and
perhaps most important, Colombia, like many other countries, suffers from a dearth of ICT
talent across the board, from entry-level programmers, to engineers and technicians, to skilled
managers to ICT-savvy leaders in the private, non-profit, and public sectors.
These new ICT investments and initiatives should not be limited to ICT-related industries
alone. Under Vive Digital, important progress in addressing wider societal challenges has
been made. Yet continued efforts to deploy ICT in ways that help combat poverty, create jobs,
and spur competitiveness are still needed. ICT and related technologies can and should have
important impacts on improving productivity and spurring innovation across the Colombian
economy.
The next version of Vive Digital—Vive Digital 2—seeks to address these pressing challenges.
It is time to move beyond ensuring access to ICT. Now, the focus moves to deeper engagement
with ICT—to use ICT as a way to improve lives, enhance competitiveness, open new markets,
build wealth, and strengthen communities.
Executive Summary

GOVERNMENT POLICY REPORTMIT TECHNOLOGY REVIEW4
This report presents potential strategies, initiatives, and programs to be considered as part
of MinTIC’s Vive Digital 2 Strategy. The recommendations build on the original Vive Digital
framework, but move beyond to identify how ICT can help address other challenges and
pressures facing Colombian society and the wider economy. The report addresses four primary
focus areas:
1. Poverty Alleviation and Social Development: How can ICT help to reduce poverty in
Colombia and to promote other important social development goals, such as improved
health and education outcomes?
2. Competitiveness:HowcanICThelpfosteramorecompetitiveandinnovativeColombian
economy?
3. ICT Industry: How can the plan help create a stronger Colombian ICT sector that
contributes to added value to the economy?
4. Environment and Talent: What underlying conditions, in areas like infrastructure,
regulation, talent development, and the business environment, are required to support
a thriving ICT-based economy?
These focus areas encompass a broad range of issues and policy challenges. Thus, this policy
report touches on dozens of issue areas and includes a large number and diverse assemblage of
Infrastructure Applications Services Users
Colombia
will be a world-class
leader in the use of ICT for
socioeconomic development
Poverty and
Social
Development
Competitiveness ICT Industry
4a Environment
4b Talent
1 2 3
ICTMINISTRYOFCOLOMBIA;VIVEDIGITAL2INITIATIVE
National Digitization Performance Data

policy ideas and recommendations. Its recommendations are organized in two ways—by focus
and/or framework area, and by whether they are core recommendations or of a supporting
nature. Core recommendations, which require significant investment or significant changes
to current policies and programs, are considered top priorities for the Vive Digital 2 Strategy.
Supporting recommendations tend to be more modest in scale and scope. They may require
simply the continuation of current programs, or minor adjustments to current policy, or
small-scale investments targeted to more specific and focused policy goals.
FrameworkArea1:ICTandPovertyAlleviation/
SocialDevelopment
MinTIC’s leading vision for Vive Digital 2 entails “massifying the Internet.” In other words,
MinTIC is seeking to support tools, programs, and investments that help every Colombian
access the latest and most up-to-date ICT technologies and services. This new ICT access can
help transform lives, by bringing innovations in education, health care, justice reform, poverty
alleviation, and economic development to all parts of Colombia and to all Colombians.
The Vive Digital 2 Program should embrace the following initiatives, which are all designed
to use ICT as a means to improve the health, education, and quality of life for all Colombians.
The four items should all be priority action items in Vive Digital 2.
1. Develop a Digital Rights Package for All Colombians. These digital rights should ensure
that every citizen has access to digital hardware and to key services, along with control
over their personal electronic health and identity records.
2. Build New Training Platforms: Charter MinTIC Academy, Colombia’s first fully online
educationandtrainingplatform.ThiseffortwillhelppositionColombiaasaworldleader
in Spanish-language online education.
3. PromoteE-Health:Supportcreationofanationwidee-healthstrategyincooperationwith
othernationalministries;appointaMinTICambassadorfore-healthtohelppromoteand
support this effort.
4. Provide Deeper Access: Deploy dedicated wireless access points in every community
inColombia.Thiseffortshouldbeaccompaniedwithsupportforsmartphonepurchases
and with MinTIC’s sponsorship of “app stores” that host useful mobile apps, tools, and
services.
T ET

FrameworkArea2:Competitiveness
Empowering all Colombians via ICT will help improve lives and promote economic
development. A new push to enhance national and regional competitiveness via ICT is also
needed. Today, the limited penetration of state-of-the art ICT in Colombian businesses,
especially in SMEs, is a major impediment to economic growth. Industry competitiveness can be
enhanced via ICTs in many ways, including:
1. Adopt a National E-Agriculture Strategy: Colombia’s agriculture sectors are global
industry leaders and major employers across the country. Efforts to improve the
productivity of Colombian agriculture via ICT-innovation investments can have large
rippleeffectsacrosstheeconomy.MinTICshoulddevelopnewinitiatives,inpartnership
withtheICTandagribusinesssectors,toprovideICTtraining,facilitatecreationofsector-
specific apps, develop information content, and identify market potential for advanced
ICT-agribusiness products or services that could be developed within Colombia.
2. Build ICT Capacity among SMEs: Encourage SMEs in all sectors to embrace the active
use of ICT tools and technologies, via actions such as:
• Offering ICT training, education and funding to deepen the ICT capability of SMEs
that already use basic technology tools
• Creating MinTIC-approved training and content to upgrade digital skills and
encourage utilization to deepen the ICT capability of SMEs
• Providing vouchers to subsidize purchase of ICT products and services
• Developing applications that help SMEs to improve the efficiency and productivity
of their supply chains.
3. Embrace E-Government: Formalize MinTIC as the lead organization for e-government
initiatives at the national level in order to:
• achieve a “whole-of-government” approach and management of a single portal for
citizen services and
• develop a long-term technology road map and build political support to address
evolving ICT issues in government.
This effort should include the establishment of a new regional center of ICT innovation
for e-government to serve as a national thought leader on effective e-government
strategies.
4. EmbraceOpenSource:Adoptapositiveandproactivepolicytowardsdevelopment,use,
andsharingofopensourcesoftwareandrelatedcodethatwouldapplytoallgovernment
levels, public health and higher education institutions.
ET
ET
D

FrameworkArea3:ICTIndustry
Developing a more competitive, resilient, and innovative homegrown ICT sector is a primary
goal of MinTIC and other key players supporting the development of Colombia’s innovation
and entrepreneurship-focused ecosystems. MinTIC and its partners have already initiated
several important new efforts focused on strengthening Colombia’s innovation ecosystem. These
include efforts such as the Apps.co program and the recently-released Strategic Vision of the
Software and Associated Services Sector. This section presents additional ideas for enhancing
the competitiveness of Colombia’s emerging ICT sector. Specific suggested initiatives include the
following:
1. Build regional ecosystems by investing in several initiatives that strengthen regional
ICT clusters and related industries. These initiatives include:
• Regional centers of ICT innovation that build connections between ICT and key
regional industry clusters, with a particular focus on anchor companies
• University entrepreneurship and innovation centers that strengthen university
capacities to train future entrepreneurs, to commercialize technology, and to
nurture regional innovation ecosystems
• Proof-of-concept centers: a small number of centers focused exclusively on the
commercialization of university-developed technology.
2. Support ICT-focused innovation investments at SMEs. This fund could be structured
in several ways—as a pool of grant funds, as a challenge prize competition, or as an
innovationvoucherprogramwherefirmscouldusepubliclybackedvoucherstopurchase
services or tools on the open market.
U
U

FrameworkArea4:Environment:TalentInstitutions
Framework Area 4 of the Vive Digital II strategy includes two major components: talent and
institutions. The dearth of ICT talent, which ranges from entry-level programmers to engineers
and technicians to skilled managers and ICT-savvy leaders in the private, nonprofit, and public
sectors, has been identified as a barrier to achieving a digital culture and maximizing the
opportunities ICT presents for overall economic competitiveness. MinTIC has organized its
efforts to improve the quantity and quality of ICT technical skills and competencies around
three categories: society, ICT professionals (industry and universities), and policy makers. These
efforts require close partnerships with different kinds of institutions, such as national, regional
and local government organizations, universities, and leading industry partners. Specific
recommendations in the areas of talent and institutions include the following:
1. BuildICTTalentatallLevels:ScaleMinTIC’sICTtalentinitiativestoamassivelevelthrough
a MinTIC-approved digital badging program that will be accessible to all Colombians—
not just ICT professionals—and will be aimed at developing basic and advanced ICT
technical skills, using the proposed MinTIC Academy as the main platform.
2. Serve Key Industry Needs: Create a program that can provide customized training for
firms with demonstrated demand for workers needing ICT technical skills, working in
partnership with SENA (the national apprenticeship service), ICETEX (the technical
education institute, universities, or other qualified training providers.
3. GroomICT-SavvyPublicServants:IncreaseunderstandingofICTpolicyissuesamong
electedofficialsatallgovernmentlevelsbyofferingnontechnical,big-pictureeventsthat
address ICT topics, built around popular speakers, private sector leaders, networking,
and social activities.
4. Enhance C-Level Management and ICT Expertise: Create and convene groups of
governmentandprivatesectorCIOsforeducation,leadership,andprogrammanagement
training to improve their ability to implement ICT solutions at the regional and municipal
levels.
ET
ET
T
ET

Supporting Recommendations*
Digital rights for
citizens (1)
Lead organization
for e-government at
national level (2)
Open source policy (2)
Wireless access points
and apps store (1)
ICT innovation
investments or vouchers
for SMEs (2,3)
MinTIC Academy (1):
ICT for SMEs (2); digital
badges (4); events for
politicians (4); teacher-
counselor training (1,4);
ICT for Government
curriculum (4)
Regional center of ICT
innovation of e-government
(4)
E-health strategy (1)
ICT for Agribusiness (2)
Regional centers of ICT
innovation (3)
University entrepreneurship and
innovation centers (3)
Proof-of-concept centers (3)
Customized ICT training for
companies/strategic sectors (4)
CIO council (4)
Product design centers (4)
Data privacy policy (2)
Open data policy (2)
ICT purchases to favor
Colombian firms (3)
Tablet program for
students (1)
Smart cities policy (2)
Entrepreneur in
residence (3)
Potential for mobile banking (1)
ICT for logistics summit (2)
Regional ICT strategy implementation (2)
Outreach: TEDx, civic
hacking (1)
Prize for e-education/
entrepreneurship (1)
Open data communities of
practice (2)
Investor networks (3)
MinTIC Policy Lead
MinTIC is the national
leader to craft poli-
cies that will affect all
Colombians and all
government agencies.
MinTIC Programs
MinTIC creates,
finances, and manages
these programs inter-
nally; they do not require
external partnerships to
implement.
MinTIC Lab
MinTIC initiatives for which
MinTIC must work through
partners, are outward-fac-
ing, and require external
resources or agreements
to achieve objectives.
“Seat at the Table”
Other organizations (including other
central government ministries) already
have primary responsibility for achieving
the socioeconomic objectives related
to these recommendations, but MinTIC
brings ICT to the table to improve their
outcomes.
Building the Academia-
Government-Industry Links
MinTIC facilitates and/or bro-
kers these relationships that
are created in the service of
broader ICT and socioeco-
nomic development objectives.
Core Recommendations*
(Framework areas are noted in parentheses)
MatrixofRecommendations/InstitutionalApproach

Since 2010, Colombia has enjoyed a strong period of economic growth and prosperity. These
achievements stem from multiple causes, but smart public policies have played an important
role. In the field of information and communications technologies (ICT), the Colombian
government’s Vive Digital Plan has been an essential driving force. Led by the Ministry of
Information and Communications Technologies (MinTIC) and its chief minister, Diego Molano
Vega, Vive Digital sought to transform Colombia’s ICT landscape by introducing “technology in
the life of every Colombian.”
The original Vive Digital plan set three broad goals for 2010-2014:1
1. Triple the number of municipalities connected to the information
superhighway
2. Connect 50 percent of homes and 50 percent of SMEs to the Internet
3. Quadruple the number of Colombian broadband Internet connections to
achieve a target of 8.8 million broadband Internet connections in 2014.
As the 2014 completion date of the original Vive Digital plan approaches, nearly all the
plan’s core objectives have been met. Today, nearly every Colombian has the opportunity to use
the latest ICTs and to participate fully in life as a digital citizen. Colombia’s outstanding ICT
programs have been recognized around the globe by organizations such as the Inter-American
Development Bank (IDB), the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development
(OECD), the Global Telecommunications Conference, and the World Summit on the
Information Society.
When the Vive Digital plan was originally unveiled, many Colombians did not understand
the potential power of ICT, or lacked access to key technologies, such as PCs, tablets, or
smartphones. Small pockets of innovation existed, but the average Colombian was not an
active user of the Internet and other ICT technologies. As such, Vive Digital rightly focused
on issues of access, that is, how to ensure that Colombians had access to ICTs and their many
benefits. This work took multiple forms—from investments in core infrastructure (for example
broadband, and submarine cables) to major deployment initiatives, like the expansion of
MinTIC’s Computers for Education effort.
1 For background, see Diego Molano Vega, “Colombia’s Digital Agenda: Successes and the Challenges Ahead,” in The Global Information
Technology Report 2013, (Davos, Switzerland: World Economic Forum: 2013).
Background and Context

SOURCE:BOOZCOMPANY
These access programs have made progress, but we now know that simply ensuring access
is not enough. We must continue to improve access where it is still a problem, but we must
go beyond that. For MinTIC, helping people to use ICT as a path to prosperity and economic
development is a core mission. We must empower people to effectively use and benefit from
ICT. This section will treat in detail approaches that can help Colombians use ICT to better their
lives. Continued efforts to promote access and digital culture must remain top priorities and
should be accompanied by a comprehensive rethinking of digital rights for Colombians. Finally,
we will address three core areas: education, health, and financial literacy and empowerment.
Successful new initiatives in each of these areas will make important contributions to providing
new ICT tools and services for all Colombians.
The range of digitization scores for 150 countries shows that 65 countries are still in the constrained stage;
19 are emerging, 28 are transitional, and 38 have achieved advanced levels of ICT adoption and use.
Africa
Asia/Pacific/Oceania
Middle East
South and Central America/Caribbean
Europe
North America
STAGE: Constrained
SCORE: Less than 25
Advanced
40 and higher
Emerging
Transitional
30 to 39.9
26.9
Panama
Azerbaijan
Antigua Barbuda
Botswana
Trinidad Tobago
Armenia
China
Ecuador
Bosnia
Georgia
Indonesia
Brunei
Tunisia
Thailand
Algeria
23.8
37.9
Estonia
Ukraine
Cyprus
Bulgaria
Croatia
Latvia
Uruguay
Oman
Argentina
Serbia
Macao
Iran
Philippines
Bahrain
Colombia
31.7
23.8
Kazakhstan
Guyana
South Africa
Belize
India
Egypt
Fiji
Gabon
El Salvador
Paraguay
Pakistan
Suriname
Dominican Rep.
Guatemala
Namibia
20.2
20.0
Aruba
Moldova
Sri Lanka
Bolivia
Kyrgyzstan
Honduras
Morocco
Bhutan
Cape Verde
Angola
Syria
Ghana
Zambia
Nigeria
Cambodia
13.0
12.9
Bangladesh
Vietnam
Cote d'Ivoire
Swaziland
Vanuatu
Kenya
Uzbekistan
Uganda
Iraq
Nepal
Cuba
Djibouti
Senegal
Laos
Burundi
8.9
8.1
Benin
Sao Tome
Mozambique
Cameroon
Togo
Yemen
Rwanda
Mali
Lesotho
Afghanistan
Madagascar
Burkina Faso
Niger
Comoros
Ethiopia
1.9
(LOWEST
SCORE)
(HIGHEST
SCORE)
63.7
Norway
Iceland
Korea
Hong Kong
Switzerland
U.S.
Luxembourg
Taiwan
Canada
Israel
Denmark
Japan
U.K.
Sweden
Finland
52.2
52.0
Australia
Belgium
Singapore
France
Portugal
Germany
Austria
Spain
Italy
Ireland
Netherlands
Czech Republic
Russia
Romania
Slovakia
43.7
43.6
UAE
Greece
Poland
Hungary
Belarus
Slovenia
New Zealand
Lithuania
Chile
Malaysia
Mauritius
Saudi Arabia
Qatar
Malta
Kuwait
38.0
31.6
Montenegro
Turkey
Mexico
Barbados
Seychelles
Jordan
Lebanon
Mongolia
Costa Rica
Brazil
Peru
Macedonia
Saint Lucia
Albania
Venezuela
27.1
Emerging
25 to 29.9
Components of the Digitization Score
National Digitization Performance Data

The steps beyond access programs are referred to by many researchers as digitization, that is,
efforts that measure the ability to use and benefit from ICT, not just have access to it. A shift to
these strategies makes great sense, because the connections between digitization and prosperity
are very strong. A recent Booz Allen Hamilton global study looked at these connections in
150 nations.2
(Figure 1 shows performance rankings.) The study found that when a country
improved its digitization score by 10 points, its GDP increased by 0.50 to 0.62 percent. But if
a country improved its Internet access score by 10 points, GDP grew by only 0.16 percent.3
Not surprisingly, the research found that the most advanced economies also had the most
advanced digital economies as well. However, the researchers further noted that the impacts of
digitization accelerate as a nation becomes more “digitized.” A “virtuous cycle” ensues where the
impacts of digital development have ever larger ripple effects in new jobs, prosperity, and new
innovations.
The original Vive Digital plan has produced enormous achievements.
Key plan outcomes include the following:
n 96 percent of Colombia is now connected to optical fiber networks.
n Every Colombian municipality has high-speed Internet access.
n Colombians are getting connected. Since 2010, household Internet connections grew
by 94 percent and small business connections jumped 185 percent.
n 746 thousand computers and tablets have been delivered to public schools.
n More than 1.2 million students are now connected to the Internet in school.
While important improvements in ICT access have been achieved, Colombia still faces many
challenges in terms of ICT deployment and use. Homegrown ICT capacities are fairly limited
and the local industry is dominated by foreign multinationals and a tiny base of local small
and medium-size enterprises (SMEs). Most traditional SMEs have little or no access to the
Internet or other ICT tools. ICT-focused firms often lack the resources and capacity to develop
new innovations or compete in global markets. A strong ICT innovation ecosystem does not yet
exist and new firms lack access to skilled business service providers or to effective partners in
universities, local governments, or key national agencies. Finally, and perhaps most important,
Colombia suffers from a dearth of ICT talent across the board, from entry-level programmers to
engineers and technicians to skilled managers to ICT-savvy leaders in the private, nonprofit,
and public sectors.
2 Bahjat El-Darwiche, Milind Singh, and Sandeep Ganediwalla, “Digitization and Prosperity,” Strategy + Business, Autumn 2012
3 Ibid, p. 6

The next version of Vive Digital—Vive Digital 2—seeks to address these pressing challenges.
It is time to move ahead. Now, the focus moves beyond ensuring access to ICT to deeper
engagement—as a way to improve lives, enhance competitiveness, open new markets, build
wealth, and strengthen communities.
Achieving these deeper impacts will require reorientation of policies and the introduction
of new programs and initiatives, which will be detailed throughout the report. We will also
introduce several key underlying (and cross-cutting) themes that govern all of these new efforts.
Underlying themes include:
n Building Talent across the Spectrum: Policies must help Colombians use ICT better at all
levels—in business, in careers, in government, in education, and in their personal lives. We
must establish short and long-term programs to build enough talent to address the market
needs that the right policies are going to create.
n Developing Ecosystems of Entrepreneurship and Innovation: Effective ecosystems
depend on close collaborations across sectors and regions. MinTIC seeks strong partners
who can join in nurturing a new culture of collaboration. Businesses and universities must
also commit to this and embrace partnerships across all of the framework areas.
n Bringing ICT to Business: We need to ensure that all businesses, especially SMEs and
industries, can effectively deploy and use ICT.
n Building on Regional and City Assets: Where possible, ICT policies should be tailored to
capitalize on unique and competitive assets in Colombia’s diverse regions and cities, such
as local industry clusters or strong local research capacities.
n Connecting Supply and Demand for Innovation: Develop new tools and policies that help
Colombians develop new ICT technologies and startups, and that create demand for such
services from individuals, households, and businesses.
n Building Digital Culture in New Ways: Develop scalable platforms that help promote ICT
on a massive scale.

TheViveDigital2Framework
Planning for Vive Digital 2 has been guided by a framework designed to help guide the
policy making process. This framework portrays the primary goals of the Vive Digital 2
project, which seeks to identify how ICT can help address other challenges and pressures
facing Colombian society and the wider economy. It rests on four primary focus areas:
1. Poverty Alleviation and Social Development: How can ICT help to reduce poverty in
Colombia and to promote other important social development goals, such as improved
health and education outcomes?
2. Competitiveness: How can ICT help foster a more competitive and innovative
Colombian economy?
3. ICT Industry: How can the plan help create a stronger Colombian ICT sector that
contributes to added value to the economy?
4. Environment and Talent: What underlying conditions, in areas like infrastructure,
regulation, talent development, and the business environment, are required to support
a thriving ICT-based economy?
This policy report is organized around the Vive Digital 2 framework. Each area
is discussed and assessed separately, with each section concluding with a series of
recommendations for action under the proposed Vive Digital 2 plan. We conclude with a
final section that summarizes all the policy recommendations and also includes additional
recommendations for addressing key organizational and implementation issues.

Poverty
Alleviation/
Social
Development
IN THIS SECTION
Overview
Colombia as a Global ICT Leader:
Embracing the Digital World
ICT for Education
ICT for Health
ICT for Financial Literacy and
Empowerment
MinTIC’s leading vision for Vive Digi-
tal 2 entails “massifying the Internet.” In
other words, MinTIC is seeking to sup-
port tools, programs, and investments
that help every Colombian access the most
up-to-date ICT technologies and services.
This new ICT access can help transform
lives, by bringing innovations in educa-
tion, health care, poverty alleviation, and
economic development to all parts of
Colombia and to all Colombians.

The Vive Digital 2 Program should
embrace the following initiatives, which
are all designed to use ICT as a means
to improve the health, education, and
quality of life for all Colombians.
Several core recommendations war-
rant top priority focus and attention.
Additional supporting recommendations
are also presented.
STUARTBRADFORD

Poverty Alleviation/Social Development
S D
Core Recommendations
These four items are priority action items in Vive Digital 2:
1. Develop a digital rights package for all Colombians. These digital rights should
ensure that every citizen has access to hardware and key services, along with
control over their personal electronic health and identity records.
2. Charter MinTIC Academy, Colombia’s first fully online education platform and
online university. This effort will help position Colombia as a world leader in
Spanish-language online education.
3. Support creation of a nationwide e-health strategy in cooperation with other
national ministries; appoint a MinTIC ambassador for e-health to help promote
and support this effort.
4. Deploy dedicated wireless access points in every community in Colombia. This
effort should be accompanied with support for smartphone purchases and with
MinTIC’s sponsorship of “app stores” that host useful cell phone apps, tools,
and services.
Supporting Recommendations
1. Embrace outreach programs, such as civic hacking and a national TEDx network,
which bring new ideas about ICT and technology trends to all parts of Colombia.
2. Continue to support a goal of providing one tablet (or another type of ICT device)
to every Colombian child by 2018.
3. Develop a more robust local e-education industry via multiple initiatives, such as
a national prize for e-education innovations and a business acceleration program
focused on e-education-related entrepreneurship.
4. Assess the potential for expanded mobile banking services in Colombia. This effort
may require the use of multiple delivery platforms including a mix of cell phones,
ATM kiosks, crowd funding, and more traditional banks and lending institutions.
*
*

MIT TECHNOLOGY REVIEW 17
GOVERNMENT POLICY REPORT
ColombiaasaGlobalICT
Leader:Embracingthe
DigitalWorld
The New Core Offering:
Digital Rights for All Colombians
All of these efforts to improve access, uti-
lization, and digitization would be rapidly
accelerated and transformed via the cre-
ation of a set of new “digital rights” for
all Colombians. These rights would go
beyond a simple statement of legal rights;
they would entail a complete package of
resources, services, and benefits available
to every Colombian citizen. This package
would help meet several goals:
• Promote digital culture and culture
change
• Create real demand for ICT products and
services
• Provide a strong legal foundation for ICT
in the economy and in political discourse
• Build nationwide buzz around early and
deep adoption and use of ICT by citizens,
consumers, households, enterprises, and
public institutions.
This digital rights package dramati-
cally extends the concept of a legal “right to
Internet access” that has been promulgated
in Costa Rica, Estonia, Finland, France,
Greece, and Spain. Finland has developed
the most expansive program. In addition to
declaring a right to Internet access, Finnish
law requires that telecommunications pro-
viders offer quality services (now defined as
Internet speeds of 1Mbps) to every citizen.1
1
Colombia should build on and expand
on the Finnish approach to digital rights by
providing a more comprehensive package
of basic online services and benefits. Under
this new system, all Colombians would be
guaranteed:
• Provision of basic hardware (such as a
basic cell phone or tablet)
• Access to basic online tools (such as an
e-mail account and limited cloud-based
data storage)
• Access to selected e-government services
at no/reduced cost
1 Finnish regulations project that these required
speeds will jump from today’s level of 1 Mbps to
100Mbps by 2015.
• Personal ownership of individual health-
care data by all citizens.
Effective provision of these digital
rights likely requires formal enactment
into law and may potentially be considered
as a formal part of Colombia’s constitu-
tion. This digital rights package can have
far-reaching consequences. In addition
to creating excitement about ICT within
Colombia, the decision will also reverberate
worldwide and help further brand Colom-
bia as a regional and global leader in new
approaches to ICT. Finally, by stimulating
demand for new services, such as cloud-
based data storage, this step will also serve
to stimulate new ICT investments within
Colombia and will also attract new foreign
investment.
Promoting Digital Culture:
Additional Steps
Thanks to MinTIC initiatives like Mujeres
TIC and Redvolucion, Colombians have
been aggressively embracing the use of ICT,
the Internet and various mobile technolo-
gies. Progress has been impressive since
the initiation of the Vive Digital strategy.
However, Colombian use of the Internet,
social media, and other mobile services
still lags the averages for Latin America
and falls behind that of regional leaders
such as Mexico, Chile, and Brazil.2
In addi-
tion, Colombian students rank near the
bottom in the most recent Program for
International Student Assessment (PISA)
assessment of digital literacy skills.3
This lagging performance largely
reflects historical gaps that are narrowing
due to Colombia’s continued efforts to close
its ICT access gap relative to other nations.
Recent progress has been quite impres-
sive—thanks in part to critical MinTIC
investments—and today Colombia has the
second highest Internet penetration rate
in Latin America. Colombia has also taken
several creative steps to promote digitiza-
tion in popular culture and to make ICT
a more compelling career option as well,
even using telenovela characters to make
these points.
2 Digital Future in Focus: Colombia, ComScore
Report. August 2013.
3 “How are the Digital Skills of Colombian Children?”
Colombia Digital, June 1, 2012. Available at:
en.colombiadigital.net/columnists/ict-numbers/
item/1847-how-are-the-digital-skills-of-colombian-
children
As part of its move from access to digi-
tization, MinTIC’s digital culture offerings
could similarly evolve from basic education
about the benefits of ICT to demonstrating
how ICT can be used to address pressing
civic and social challenges. The growing
global movement around “civic hacking”
offers one opportunity where MinTIC can
help support this work. Civic hacking is a
movement where people come together to
use public data, code, and technology to
help address pressing social problems; it is
booming around the world. In the United
States, an annual National Day of Civic
Hacking is recognized and hundreds of
cities sponsor regular competitions to help
spur civic hacking. Colombians are also
getting into the game, with events such
CoCrea Colombia (held in Barranquilla,
Cali, and Manizales in May 2013) designed
to address the problem of arroyos in urban
areas. MinTIC should continue to sponsor
a series of similar hackathons or compe-
titions where participants seek to solve
pressing social challenges using ICT.
A host of other public relations and out-
reach efforts should also be considered.
Around the world, many countries are
embracing the Hour of Code initiative that
coincides with Computer Science Educa-
tion Week (held in 2013 from December 9
to15). During the Hour of Code campaign,
more than 3.5 million students in 161 coun-
tries (including Colombia) signed up to
take a basic one-hour introduction to com-
puter science and coding. This effort offers
another means to demystify coding and
explain the importance of ICT. The effort
is backed by major global ICT firms, and
has been publicized by celebrities includ-
ing Shakira, Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg,
and President Barack Obama.
MinTIC might also consider official
sponsorship of a series of TEDx events
(locally organized presentations of ideas
worth spreading) around Colombia to
focus on ICT-related issues and challenges.
TEDx events have already been successful
in Bogotá and Medellin, but those events
did not specifically focus on ICT. MinTIC
support could drive ICT-focused events and
also introduce the TEDx model to other
regions of the country. These TEDx talks
could also be streamed across the country
via massive open online courses (MOOCs)
or other MinTIC supported technologies.

These recommended outreach initia-
tives help to improve on the good work
already underway via MinTIC and other
partners. However, they do not make a
massive change in Colombia’s ICT access
debates. A more far-reaching recom-
mendation would require deployment
of community wireless access points in
every Colombian community. Since these
access points already exist in most urban
areas, MinTIC’s programs should focus
on providing similar access points in more
isolated and rural communities.
Wireless access points offer a means
to truly engage a large swath of Colom-
bians, as national cell-phone penetration
rates now exceed 100 percent. If the access
points are combined with small subsidies
for the purchase of smartphones, the ability
to access the latest ICT tools and services
would be available to all.
Core Recommendation
The Challenge: More Colombians need
access to the full array of ICT tools and
services, along with a means to share new
apps and innovations.
Proposed Solution: Install free wireless
access points in all communities and
link this network to a series of “app
stores” where new tools and apps can be
promoted and sold.
*
In an effort to further stimulate use of
and interest in these new mobile device
services and tools, MinTIC should spon-
sor the creation of its own app store where
new tools and apps can be made available.
Multiple stores could be considered, each
focused on a key issue area (health, mobile
banking, and education), a target industry,
or a specific region or locality. Creation
of new apps should be promoted across
all MinTIC programs, from Apps.Co to
hackathons to CPE (Computadores para
Educar) and numerous other such initia-
tives. In addition, MinTIC should consider
sponsoring a program similar to the MIT-
backed Entrepreneurial Research and
Programming on Mobiles (EPROM) ini-
tiative. EPROM, which operates in Africa,
supports research and business devel-
opment activities focused on cell phone
platforms. Ongoing projects include efforts
to develop new tools for mobile health
records, mobile mapping, mobile blood
bank management, and numerous other
applications.
Beneﬁts to Colombia:
• Builds digital culture and national
dialogue across all Colombia and all
social groups
• Promotes demand for ICT services and
applications across Colombian
consumers, households, enterprises
and public organizations.
• Enhances safety, security and peace
for all Colombians
• Lays the foundation for building
scalable national ICT platforms in
education, health, e-Government and
business
• Strengthens ICT utilization and
adoption in all regions and cities and in
all industry sectors
• Lays foundation for building a domestic
cloud computing, big data and data
center network
• Attracts foreign investment aimed at
ICT infrastructure and services, in
particular a nationwide data center
network
• Demonstrates global leadership around
use of ICT for economic development,
poverty alleviation and reduction of
inequality, building upon the example of
Finland
Highspeed Broadband
Minimum 1 - 100 MBPS
ICT Training
and Education
(online and classroom)
Basic Cellphone,
SMS, GPS,
Camera
Basic
Cloud-based
Data Storage
Minimum
100MB-1GB
cloud storage
for each citizen
Guaranteed under
Law for Every Citizen
of Colombia
Patient Ownership
of Personal Health
Records and Data
E-Government
Services
(free/discounted)
Basic Tablet
Basic Email
Digital Rights for All Colombian Citizens
A Comprehensive Package of ICT Services, Privileges, and Beneﬁts for All
SOURCE:CODE.ORG,DECEMBER2013.COPYRIGHT–BURTONHOYTLEE2014.ALLRIGHTSRESERVED(EDITSANDMODIFICATIONSPERMITTED).

ICTforEducation
n The development of new mobile learn-
ing tools is one of the most exciting new
directions for ICT policy. Education at all
levels—primary, secondary, and tertiary---
is being transformed via ICT. ICT is now
a regular part of formal education at all
levels in Colombia, and the emergence of
new platforms for online learning offers
the potential to bring training, education,
and other benefits to a widening swath of
individuals, households, businesses, and
communities.
At present, Colombia is a Latin Amer-
ican leader in terms of deploying ICTs
for education. A number of Vive Digital
programs focus on this important work,
especially at the primary and secondary
school levels. For example, the CPE initia-
tive brings ICTs to children in rural and
underdeveloped areas and also provides
support to teachers in the effective use of
ICT tools. Since its inception in 2001, CPE
has delivered nearly 700 thousand comput-
ers to more than 40,000 schools. Along the
way, CPE has supported technical train-
ing for 14,000 teachers. Today, the ratio
of students to computer terminals across
Colombia has dropped to 15:1.
CPE is continuing its work and intends
to further empower both students and
teachers in the effective use of ICTs. Future
plans call for reaching a 12:1 student to
computer ratio in schools and in reaching
100 percent coverage in teacher technical
training. (At present, MinTIC is on track to
achieve these goals by August 2014. With a
more recent initiative of tablets for students
associated with its recently granted high-
speed 4G licenses, Colombia might even
reach a ratio of 4:1!). As older computers
become obsolete, CPE must also continue
to upgrade outdated systems, computers,
and tablets and ensure the effective dis-
posal and recycling of discarded materials.
In addition to continued ICT access
improvements via CPE, MinTIC should
also examine how ICT can improve the
actual delivery of learning opportunities.
These initiatives could address three broad
sets of issues:
1. Improving access to education and ICT
learning opportunities
2. Improving quality of education
3. Introducing new ICT-related tools and
technologies to education.
Improving Education Access
Vive Digital 1 rightly focused its primary
attention on improving access to ICT as
an education tool. The many achieve-
ments of the CPE program testify to the
effectiveness of this approach. To increase
access to ICT in primary and secondary
education, MinTIC should assess whether
to continue with current plans that call
for continued and gradual introduction
of computers for students or to embrace a
more radical goal of providing one laptop
(or tablet) per child. These 1:1 models, such
as Uruguay’s CEIBAL or similar projects
in Peru and Brazil, are generating increas-
ing interest as the cost of computers and
mobile devices drops. As noted elsewhere
in this report, these 1:1 models generate
some implementation challenges (such as
high cost) but they do seem to generate
important improvements in both learning
outcomes and ICT proficiency. A goal of 1:1
is an achievable and attractive target for the
Vive Digital 2 initiative.
A new effort to help improve access to
higher education may also make sense. In
Chile, the Ministry of Education has used
Educarchile, a national Internet educa-
tion portal, as a tool to help lower-income
students better prepare for the national
university admissions test (PSU). This
test, first introduced in 2003, has proven
quite challenging for students from
lower-income neighborhoods and lower-
performing schools. Educarchile provides
PSU training, practice tests and other tools
for both teachers and students. This site is
one of the most visited web portals in Chile
and is serving millions of students each
year. A mobile tool, PSU Movil, has been
used since 2009 and similar resources are
now found on social media sites like Twit-
ter and Facebook.
In the United States, extensive online
education is the norm at community col-
leges that often serve a more diverse,
less affluent, and less college-ready stu-
dent base. Many of these students lack
the finances to afford college courses, and
many need time-consuming and costly
remedial education in areas like reading
and math. Distance and online learning
programs allow students to take courses at
their own pace and at a reduced cost. These
transition curricula and learning tools
are increasingly popular.4
For example,
in Florida, 40 percent of college students
took at least one online course in 2011.5
Texas has enjoyed great success with its
Developmental Summer Bridge program,
which provides online remedial courses in
the summer between high school comple-
tion and college enrollment.
Private online education provid-
ers are also thriving. The University of
Phoenix is likely the best known exam-
ple of these schools. While the school is
facing a number of growth challenges, its
reach is extensive, engaging more than 30
thousand faculty members and providing
online courses to more than 300 thousand
students.
The embrace of online education offers
an important means to achieve MinTIC’s
stated goals of “massifying” the Inter-
net, generating a massive increase in the
public’s regular and consistent use of the
Internet and other ICT tools. Online edu-
cation offers platforms that will allow
large and rapid increases in the number of
Colombians using ICT.
Improving Education Quality via ICT
In the area of education quality, two areas
of focus have received substantial attention
in recent years: the use of ICT in support-
ing teacher training, and the need for more
rigorous and effective evaluations and
assessment. Under leadership of MinTIC
and the Ministry of Education, Colom-
bia has been a global leader in supporting
ICT-focused teacher training. The CPE
program has already trained 14 thousand
teachers with a goal of eventually provid-
ing such training to 28 thousand educators
nationwide.
Teachers’ discomfort with new technol-
ogy may be a deterrent to both effective
deployment in the classroom and overall
support for ICT skill development among
students. As it expands student access,
4 Community College Research Center, Reshaping the
College Transition, A State Policy Report, November
2013.
5 stateimpact.npr.org/florida/2012/12/24/
state-leaders-ready-to-expand-online-higher-
education-in-2013/
S D

IMAGECOURTESYMITOPENCOURSEWAREIMAGECOURTESYMITOPENCOURSEWAREIMAGECOURTESYMITOPENCOURSEWARE
MinTIC may also need to expand teacher
training so that the full benefits of tech-
nology in the classroom may be achieved.
CPE’s successful training and outreach
efforts should be continued, and could be
supplemented with a new MinTIC focus on
developing new curricula and new digital
teaching and learning materials.
MinTIC should also consider a number
of approaches that can help build better
connections with ICT businesses and aspir-
ing entrepreneurs across Colombia. For
example, a national prize competition for
education-related apps and tools might be
developed. This effort could be modeled on
UNESCO’s King Hamad Bin Isa Al Khal-
ifa Prize for the Use of ICTs in Education,
which has rewarded ICT education innova-
tions for the past few years. Competitions
can help generate business interest in serv-
ing the growing e-education marketplace.
In addition, MinTIC might consider pro-
viding additional support for e-education
start-up acceleration programs or the
development of a focused education mod-
ule within the Apps.co initiative. Numerous
start-up acceleration programs worldwide
are embracing a focus on online learning
and ICT-driven education innovations.
These incubator/accelerator programs
nurture entrepreneurs who are developing
new solutions for the education technology
market. Many programs are freestanding;
examples include Silicon Valley’s Imag-
ine K-12 incubator and London’s EdTech
incubator. Other programs are affiliated
with industry associations (for example,
the Software and Information Indus-
try Association), major universities (like
Stanford’s Schools of Education and Engi-
neering), or private firms in the education
market (such as Macmillan’s New Ventures
Program). At the University of Pennsyl-
vania, the new Education Design Studio
Inc. (EDSi), affiliated with the Graduate
Supporting Recommendation
The Challenge: Colombia does not have a
strong homegrown e-education industry.
Proposed Solution: Use challenge
prize programs and startup acceleration
programs, such as Apps.co, to help seed the
startup of new e-education companies.
*
S D
U ET T
S D
CLASSROOM
EDUCATION
Content
Interaction
Assessment
Content
Interaction
Assessment
Credentialing
Credentialing?
MOOCs
Scaling Up Education MITx and other MOOCS
Aspects of the educational experience reaggregated in the MOOC format
MITx and edX Sharing, Teaching, Platform
2002
Sharing
• Publication of material
from more than 2,100
MIT courses
• Uses open licenses to
permit reuse
• 170 million users
in 10 years
• No interactivity,
no certiﬁcate
2012
Platform
• 501c3 owned by MIT
and Harvard
• Open source platform
for MOOCs
• Building x Consortium
(currently 29 universities)
2011
Teaching
• MIT Massive Open
Online Courses
for the world
• Interactivity
• Certiﬁcates
ALSO
• Innovations in MIT’s
on-campus teaching
Distinguishing characteristics of MIT OpenCourseWare, MITx and edX
Disaggregated aspects of the educational experience at scale online
Learning
Web 1.0
Web 2.0
AI/Adaptive
Alternative
Credentialing
Content
Interaction
Assessment
Credentialing
Scaling Up Education Open Credentialing
CLASSROOM
EDUCATION

School of Education, serves as a combi-
nation of incubator, design studio, seed
fund, and social impact company in its own
right. At present, EDSi operates in “virtual”
space, but will take over new physical space
next year. EDSi operates with a mixture of
funding from local government agencies,
private investors, foundations, and large
firms such as McGraw Hill Education.
In addition to supporting new inno-
vations, MinTIC should also promote
improved quality in existing ICT educa-
tion initiatives. This effort requires an
expanded commitment to quality assur-
ance and performance measurement of
program outcomes and impacts, areas that
can be greatly improved via ICTs. As part of
Vive Digital 2, MinTIC should work with
the Ministry of Education and with other
national and international accreditation
agencies, such as the Latin American and
Caribbean Institute for Quality in Distance
Education to ensure that Colombian train-
ing materials and assessment tools are of
the highest quality and contribute to better
education outcomes.
Introducing New ICT Promotion
Models and Platforms
New ICT tools and services emerge nearly
every day in the e-learning market, but
MOOCs are receiving the bulk of public
COPYRIGHT–BURTONHOYTLEE2014.ALLRIGHTSRESERVED(EDITSANDMODIFICATIONSPERMITTED).
MinTIC Academy – A NEW ICT Platform and Model for Delivering Online Education and Training Content Across Colombia
License International Content
• MIT, Harvard, Stanford, Oxford, etc.
Develop New Content Domestically
• MOOCS
• Courses optimized for Colombian
SMEs, MSMEs, schools, households
and universities
Content Focus
• Basic ICT skills for Colombian citizens
• ICT management and leadership
• Software engineering, design, coding
• ICT entrepreneurship
• ICT innovation processes
• Strategic use of ICT for Competitive
advantage and exports
Use of Open Data + Open Source
Content
Development
Improves Competitiveness
• Anchor for new EduTech ICT
sector in Colombia
• Attracts foreign investment
and partners
• Supports talent development
at all levels, in all sectors and
communities.
• Online education and social
development for cities, regions,
and rural areas
Cross-Cutting
Beneﬁts
Large Domestic Market
• Primary and secondary schools
• Universities
• MSMEs, SMEs, large enterprises
• SENA
• Ministries
• Regions and cities
• Hospitals and clinics
• Industries – agriculture, tourism, technology, etc.
Large Global Export Market
• LatAM
• USA
• Spain/Europe
Users
Domestic Partnerships
• Universities
• SENA
• Industry
International Partnerships
• MIT
• Harvard
• Stanford
• Cambridge
Partners
MinTIC Academy
A scalable ICT platform and
organization dedicated to the
development and delivery of MOOC-like
Spanish language education and
training content
“CODED IN COLOMBIA”
Made in Colombia by Colombians
for Colombian needs and users
MinTIC Academy Institutional and Operational Options
Option Description
Public Institution
• Organized and operated as a new unit within MinTIC, with MinTIC staff and internal budget
• Organized as a new stand-alone public sector enterprise in partnership with MinTIC, Universities, Ministry of Education, SENA, etc.
Private Sector Institution(s)
• One or more new startups supported with seed funding from MinTIC via procurement or grant, and private investors
• One or more established companies in Colombia contracted by MinTIC to develop all grant components of MinTIC Academy
• Attract one or more US/European MOOC startups Udacity, Coursera, iVersity, etc. to establish an operation in Colombia
Public/Private Hybrid Model or Partnership
• A combination of the above options
Option Ranking
Option I
Option II
Option III

attention today. MOOCs are becoming
commonplace in the US and Europe, via
companies like edX and Coursera, but they
are a newer phenomenon in Latin America.
In fact, Sao Paolo University announced
what it deemed the first MOOC based
in Latin America in June 2013.6
Spain’s
Miriada X remains one of the best known
Spanish-language MOOC platforms.
By their very nature, MOOCs are avail-
able to anyone, and it is not unusual for
popular courses to enroll thousands of
students. As such, Colombian students
can and should consider enrolling in
MOOCs offered in the US or elsewhere.
However, there is a pressing need for more
Spanish-language MOOCs and for courses
that reflect local, national or regional pri-
orities. EdX, Coursera, and other US-based
market leaders are unlikely to develop
extensive local content for the Colombian
market. Thus, MinTIC may want to con-
sider sponsoring homegrown development
of MOOC courses for use by Colombians,
and for eventual export to other Span-
ish-speaking populations. Coursework
in ICT-related fields, like programming
or web page design, directly addresses
MinTIC’s mission, but other focused
coursework, on Colombian history or cul-
ture, may also make sense. Some of this
coursework could be adapted from existing
coursework managed by Udacity; several
Udacity programming courses have been
translated into Spanish via a partnership
with Google. Because some traditional
education providers may view MOOCs
as competition, MinTIC may also need to
sponsor the development of its own focused
curricula as well. Finally, MinTIC can use
these resources to help address Vive Digi-
tal 2’s important goals of expanding SME
use of ICTs. Special courses and workshops
focused on SME needs and issues could be
delivered via these technologies.
A more expansive approach would
involve MinTIC support for the creation
of a new online platform or online uni-
versity—MinTIC Academy—the first of its
kind in Latin America and one of the first
worldwide as well. This effort would help
to position Colombia as a global leader in
online education, and also serve as a vehicle
for a host of MinTIC-related offerings and
6 https://www.edsurge.
com/n/2013-06-17-latin-america-s-first-mooc
training in key ICT skills and competen-
cies and in other areas, such as e-health
and mobile finance. This platform should
not be limited to university-level training;
it should be customized to serve a wide
range of audiences. There is no real limit
to the range of potential offerings. Within
the areas addressed in the Vive Digital
framework, issues like financial literacy,
entrepreneurship, SME technical assis-
tance, youth engagement, teacher training,
and many more areas could benefit from
new online learning platforms. To be truly
effective, this platform should focus on
Colombia’s domestic needs and interests
and provide funding to develop content
addressing key Colombian markets.
Because of the challenges related to
the development and marketing of new
content via MOOCs, MinTIC should
undertake additional evaluations to assess
Core Recommendation
The Challenge: Colombia lacks a scalable
online learning platform that can reach large
parts of its population and targeted learning
communities, such as teachers, SME
managers, or mothers.
Proposed Solution: MinTIC Academy,
Colombia’s first fully online education and
training platform.
*
the best potential management and struc-
ture for this new online learning platform
Three options exist:
1. To “own” and manage the platform at
MinTIC,
2. To partner with Colombian education
providers to develop, manage, and
market content, and
3. To develop formal partnerships with
existing market leaders, such as MIT
OpenCourseware, MITx, or the edX
consortium.
This last option would serve as the
simplest and lowest-cost approach for the
initial first step. The global OpenCourse-
ware Consortium already includes 250
international universities with more than
13 thousand online courses in 20 different
languages. As the platform is developed,
additional steps to create more local
content and more content for non-univer-
sity-level audiences must be a top priority.
MinTIC and its potential partners should
commit to announcing the creation of the
new platform within their first six months
and Vive Digital 2 and to opening the first
MOOC courses within the first year of
operations.
ICTforHealth
n Effective use of ICT and related tech-
nologies has proved to improve health
care outcomes greatly. E-health is a rap-
COPYRIGHT–BURTONHOYTLEE2012-2013
ET
ET
T
Patient medical records waiting digitization, Archives Room, Hospital Local del Norte,
Bucuramanga, Santander region, Colombia, March 2012.

idly growing field that is helping to improve
health-care quality, expand the provision
of care to underserved populations, and
also help reduce health-care costs. New
ICT tools such as digital medical records
that facilitate e-prescriptions, e-referrals,
and other new services have the potential
to transform the delivery of health ser-
vices. As a recent Inter-American Develop-
ment Bank analysis noted, e-health services
deliver four types of benefits. In addition to
improving the care delivered at clinics and
hospitals, they help to:
1. Create better informed patients.
2. Deliver information directly to the point
of care.
3. Extend care to previously underserved
communities.
4. Lower the cost of service delivery.7
MinTIC and other state ministries have
long embraced the concepts of e-health.
In addition, a number of universities and
research centers, led by the Colombia
Telemedicine Center of Cali, are devel-
oping new tools, resources, and training
programs.
Creating effective data privacy rules is
an essential first step for effective e-health
policies. Fortunately, recent revisions to
Colombia’s personal data protection laws
have aligned Colombia’s rules and practices
with similar rules used by other leading
Latin American nations and across the
globe. The World Health Organization’s
most recent eHealth Country Profile series
also notes that many of the key legal and
regulatory foundations are in place in
Colombia.8
7 Inter-American Development Bank, Bridging Gaps,
Building Opportunities: Broadband as a Catalyst
of Economic Growth and Social Progress in Latin
America and the Caribbean, March 2012, p. 27.
8 World Health Organization, Global Observatory for
eHealth. Available at: www.who.int/goe/publications/
ehealth_series_vol1/en/index.html
Core Recommendation
The Challenge: To create more public
support for the acceleration of e-health
programs in Colombia.
Proposed Solution: Support
development of a national e-health plan,
with MinTIC support provided by a newly
designated e-health coordinator.
*
A National E-Health Strategy
As a next step, MinTIC should consider
sponsoring or advocating for develop-
ment of a national e-health action plan
in cooperation with key health-related
agencies. As part of this effort, MinTIC
should consider designating a national
level e-health coordinator to help manage
the planning process. Because of the tre-
mendous complexities related to various
aspects of e-health policies, national level
planning to coordinate multiple agencies
and disciplines is needed. In addition to
addressing key legal and regulatory issues,
this national plan can help set a frame-
work for new investment in health ICT
infrastructure.
These national level strategies are rec-
ommended as preferred practice by many
international and regional organizations,
including the World Health Organization,
the Pan-American Health Organization,
the International Telecommunications
Union (ITU), the OECD, the European
Union (EU), and many others. The ITU
and key partners have developed special-
ized tool kits to assist in the development
of such plans.9
In Europe, the EU has
embarked on development of a new 2012-
2020 e-health action plan to coordinate
data rules and to develop telemedicine
technical standards across member states.
A similar effort is needed in Colombia,
perhaps in cooperation with other Latin
American nations.
Electronic Health Records (EHRs)
This strategy should place particular
attention on how to manage digital health
records. Management and control of per-
sonal health records is proving to be a
major obstacle in the development and
expansion of mobile health services. In
the US and other developed economies,
EHRs have been used for some time, but
issues over EHR management have greatly
complicated moves toward full digitization
of health services.10
EHR systems are not
9 International Telecommunications Union,
National E-Health Strategy Toolkit, (Geneva:
ITU, 2012). Available at: www.itu.int/
pub/D-STR-E_HEALTH.05-2012
10 Kyle Murphy, “Is Mobile the Key to EHR
Interoperability, Fragmentation?” EHR Intelligence,
October 23, 2013. Available at: ehrintelligence.
com/2013/10/23/is-mobile-the-key-to-ehr-
interoperability-fragmentation/
inter-operable and the large number of
new technologies and services further com-
plicates the mix. These challenges could
be lessened if patients were provided with
remote real-time access to and control of
their own personal health records.11
Suc-
cessful e-health initiatives also meet the
operational needs of health-care provid-
ers, including doctors, public health offices,
and hospitals. E-health services will not
be adopted if they are too complicated,
unreliable or incompatible with existing
processes.
ICTforFinancialLiteracy
andEmpowerment
n With cell phone penetration rates that
exceed 100 percent, Colombia is poised to
be a regional and global leader in mobile
banking and related fields. Numerous stud-
ies project massive growth in mobile bank-
ing utilization across Latin America over
the next several years.12
Other research,
from the World Bank Group’s International
Finance Corporation (IFC) and from the
MasterCard Mobile Payments Readiness
Index, notes that Colombians are ready
and willing to use mobile banking services.
The needed regulatory infrastructure is in
place, but many are deterred by the high
cost of these services and other non-ICT-
related factors, such as overall low savings
rates.
These trends offer opportunities to
reduce costs and to improve services,
but, more important, they offer a means
to reach new and underserved custom-
ers, particularly those with lower incomes
or residents of relatively isolated rural
regions. Using ICT technology for finan-
cial inclusion is proving to be a successful
strategy around the globe. Kenya is prob-
ably the best known example of this process
and the benefits of new mobile technolo-
gies for financial inclusion. Prior to the
advent of mobile money (2006), only 20
percent of Kenyans had access to financial
11 “Frost and Sullivan Examines the Future of
On-Demand Mobile Personal Health Records,”
Press Release, October 22, 2013. Available at:
www.frost.com/prod/servlet/press-release.
pag?docid=286610401
12 See, for example, Deloitte, The Future of Mobile
Banking in Latin America, 2011 Report. Available
at: www.deloitte.com/assets/Dcom-UnitedStates/
Local%20Assets/Documents/FSI/US_FSI_
Mobilebanking_Latin_America_121511.pdf
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services. By 2010, 75 percent of Kenyans
had used such services.13
While the Kenyan success story is
regularly touted, few other nations have
been able to emulate this impressive per-
formance. Kenya’s success developed not
simply because of the power of ICT, but
because mobile-money efforts were well
integrated into a national network of finan-
cial agents who could benefit from a large
and ready pool of customers. Effective
strategies in Colombia will depend not
just on new technologies, but on the abil-
ity to link mobile-money services to a wide
and available network of service points in
stores, kiosks, mobile devices, and the like.
The adoption of mobile economy tools will
depend upon success in helping Colom-
bians transition from their traditional
reliance on the cash economy.
Despite extensive cell phone pen-
etration rates, Colombia has been less
successful in encouraging full and effective
use of new mobile banking services. In fact,
Colombia has one of the largest gaps in
Latin America between mobile penetration
rates and financial inclusion.14
While more
affluent customers are embracing mobile
banking, penetration rates among the
poor remain low. A recent study of mobile
phone use by informal workers in Medel-
lin found that most respondents used cell
phones for personal calls and opted to use
game kiosks for financial services.15
These
kiosks were viewed as more convenient
and better structured to deal with the small
payments and small transactions required
by most local customers. Most did not see
a need for banking services, which were
viewed as too costly and too complex. The
analysis recommends that kiosks and other
points of sale should be tapped as part of
a nationwide network to provide financial
services. This digital network, with a focus
on the poor and unbanked, would serve as
13 Fatima Yousif et al., Best Practices in Mobile
Microfinance, Grameen Foundation White Paper,
2013, p. 2. Available at: www.imtfi.uci.edu/files/imtfi/
grameen_microfinance_white_paper.pdf
14 Ericsson Consumer Lab, M-Commerce in Latin
America, June 2013. Available at: www.ericsson.com/
res/docs/2013/consumerlab/m-commerce-in-latam.
pdf.
15 Ana Maria Echeverry Villa and Coppelia Herran
Cuertas, Betting on Chance in Colombia, Irvine:
CA: Institute for Money, Technology and Financial
Inclusion, 2013. Available at: www.imtfi.uci.edu/files/
imtfi/docs/2013/betting_on_chance_in_colombia_
english_final.pdf
a supplement to the mobile banking ser-
vices under development by banks and
other private lenders. The current reliance
on kiosks suggests that any shifts toward
mobile banking should include this onsite
distribution channel as well.
Linking mobile banking and micro-
finance programs has also proved to be
an effective development strategy. An
extensive literature on best practices in
ICT-driven microfinance has been devel-
oped by global microfinance institutions
(MFIs) like Grameen Bank and others.16
This research suggests that there is no one
single effective business model and strategy
for mobile microfinance services. As such,
industry experts recommend the design
of pilot demonstration projects to test dif-
ferent models and approaches. MinTIC
should consider working with regional
governments to test a handful of business
models for effective mobile microfinance
services.
A final option would be to consider sup-
port for national, regional, or local crowd
funding platforms modeled on existing
tools such as Kiva, Kickstarter, or Indi-
egogo. These sites could be focused on a
specific region or specific focus areas, such
as business startups, nonprofits, or arts
and culture related projects. This effort
offers another means to help publicize the
power of ICT platforms to assist Colombi-
ans in accessing capital for needed projects
or startups.
In Colombia, cultural and business
factors seem to outweigh technology
shortcomings as a primary impediment
to greater use of mobile banking services.
Therefore these efforts should be accom-
panied by an extensive outreach campaign
that touts the benefits of mobile banking.
Sample Metrics
This fundamental area of the Vive Digital
strategy covers a wide array of issues, and
thus complicates our capacity to develop a
single set of shared metrics. Each subfield,
such as e-health or e-education, must rely
on specialized metrics and performance
assessment systems. Fortunately, most of
these disciplines can also point to well-
established best practices for performance
measurement, such as the PISA assess-
16 Yousif et al.
ments of digital learning or the ITU’s
toolkit for tracking e-health performance.
More generally, MinTIC should con-
tinue to utilize the core access metrics that
have driven assessment of the original Vive
Digital strategy. These include the follow-
ing measurements:
1. Connections: The scale and scope of
municipal, business, and home connections
to fiber optic networks and high-speed
Internet connections
2. Penetration: Increases in access to
key ICT tools and services, such as ICT
access in schools; training teachers to be
comfortable with ICT tools; and increases
in use of new services, such as mobile bank-
ing or e-health services
3. Economic Impacts: Increases in stu-
dents entering ICT and related fields, and
the creation of new jobs, new wealth, and
new business ventures based on ICT and
assessed at the local, regional, and national
levels.
These access measures should be sup-
plemented by other metrics that capture
Colombia’s continued success in promoting
digitization.17
These include the following:
1. Ubiquity: access to digital services and
applications
2. Affordability: availability through low
pricing
3. Reliability: quality and consistency of
connection
4. Speed: real-time data throughput rates
5. Usability: ease of getting on line and
ease of use
6. Skill: incorporation of digital services
into lives and businesses.
17 El Darwiche et al, p. 3.

Competitiveness
IN THIS SECTION
Overview
ICT and Competitiveness by Strategic
Sector
Adoption of ICT among MSMEs to
Promote Competitiveness
ICT and Regional Competitiveness
Smart Cities
ICT Adoption in Government
Metrics and Performance Impacts
MinTIC’s mission to use ICT as a
path to prosperity and economic develop-
ment requires expanding and deepening
business and government use of ICT
technologies. This component of the
Vive Digital 2 strategy seeks to leverage
MinTIC’s ICT investments to make the
Colombian economy more competitive
and innovative by improving industry
productivity and government efficiency. It
addresses approaches to ICT development
for strategic industry sectors, support for
micro-, small, and medium enterprises
(MSMEs), regional competitiveness, and
e-government.
STUARTBRADFORD

Competitiveness
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Core Recommendations
1. Adopt a National E-Agriculture Strategy: Colombia’s agriculture sectors are global industry leaders and major
employers across the country. Efforts to improve the productivity of Colombian agriculture via ICT investments can
have large ripple effects across the economy. MinTIC should develop new initiatives, in partnership with the ICT and
agribusiness sectors, to provide ICT training, facilitate creation of sector-specific apps, develop information content, and
identify market potential for advanced ICT-agribusiness products or services that can be developed within Colombia.
2. Build ICT Capacity in SMEs: Encourage SMEs in all sectors to embrace the active use of ICT tools and
technologies, via actions such as:
• Offering ICT training, education and funding to deepen the ICT capacity of SMEs that already use basic technology
tools (“technology followers”)
• Creating MinTIC-approved training and content to upgrade digital skills and encourage using them to deepen the
ICT capacity of SMEs
• Providing vouchers to subsidize purchase of ICT products and services.
3. Embrace E-Government: Formalize MinTIC as the lead organization for e-government initiatives at the national
level in order to achieve a “whole-of-government” approach and management of a single portal for citizen services,
develop a long-term technology road map, and build political support to address evolving ICT issues in government.
This effort should include the establishment of a regional center of ICT innovation for e-government that would serve
as a national thought leader on effective strategies.
4. Embrace open-source software. Adopt a positive and proactive policy towards the development, use, and sharing
of open-source software and related code that would apply to all government levels, public health, and higher
education institutions.
Supporting Recommendations
1. Convene an ICT industry plus logistics sector summit to select one top priority among the needs already identified
(such as port security or prediction systems for warehouse traffic) and create a project team (funded by MinTIC
and industry partners) to provide a solution within one year.
2. Implement the strategies and actions from the Strategic Vision of the Software and Associated Services Sector
Regionalized Marketing and Sales Plan.
3. Adapt outreach techniques developed through Redvolucion and IT Mujeres to provide basic computer and Internet
training through multiple channels to micro- and small businesses with low levels of technology adoption.
4. Engage SMEs with high levels of technology adoption in regional cluster initiatives, the proposed regional centers
of IT innovation, and university entrepreneurship and innovation centers. Promote access to financing and ICT
training programs, such as the proposed innovation funds and MinTIC training and certification programs.
5. Expand the Mipyme digital pilot program to work with large enterprises to introduce ICT to MSMEs in their
supply chains.
6. Adopt a bottom-up approach with regions, one which employs local stakeholder- and user-driven priorities and
needs, in order to identify specific activities for sectoral and regional ICT initiatives.
7. Pursue a platform approach to smart-cities programs, one that provides governance guidelines while allowing
bottom-up innovation and creation of an ecosystem around the initiatives. Engage universities and the proposed
regional centers of ICTinnovation—as well as government and private industry—to form the ecosystem around the
smart cities initiative.
8. Prepare policy guidelines addressing data practices and privacy issues, for use by government entities at all levels.
9. Adopt a positive and proactive policy towards development, use/adoption, maintenance, and sharing of ”open data”
for commercial and not-for-profit applications. This policy would apply to the national government, regional, and city
governments, public health and higher education institutions.
10. Create and foster open-data communities of practice across Colombia.
T
*
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ICTandCompetitiveness
byStrategicSector
n ICT infrastructure can enable productiv-
ity and efficiency gains by industry sector,
but to be transformational, services (infor-
mation, apps and software) that meet the
specific needs of each sector must be avail-
able. This section summarizes major ICT
topics and services that have been identi-
fied as most important in driving growth
for a set of Colombia’s strategic sectors.
This section is organized around the
country’s strategic sectors—agribusiness,
manufacturing, and services—as identi-
fied in the Vive Digital 2 framework and
consistent with the investment sectors
used by the Ministry of Commerce, Indus-
try and Tourism (MinCIT)1
and Proexport
Colombia. Within these three sectors we
focus attention on the “productive bets”
that were identified in the FITI report2
as
most promising for ICT development in
the regions. Responding to the high pri-
ority given to trade and transportation by
the national government, we also high-
light opportunities related to the logistics
segment in Colombia. (The information
technology industry itself is addressed in
Framework 3.)
Agribusiness
Agriculture accounts for 6.5 percent of
Colombia’s GDP and 18 percent of its
employment.3
Agricultural products—
especially coffee, flowers, bananas and
sugar—are major export products. Palm
oil, rubber, cocoa, and sugar cane have been
identified as areas of opportunity.4
Other
major products include rice, tobacco, corn,
beef, shrimp, chocolate and confectionery,
1 www.investincolombia.com.co/sectors
2 APCA Consortium ETI, Strategic Vision of the Software and Associated
Services Sector Regionalized Marketing and Sales Plan of the Sector in
Colombia. Executive Summary. 2013.
3 www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/co.html
4 ProExport Colombia, Colombian Agribusiness Sector, 2011. www.
slideshare.net/investincolombia/colombian-agribusiness-sector-2011
palm and biofuels, fruits and vegetables,
and milk.5
Across the sector, ICT has tremendous
potential to help both small-scale farmers
and major agricultural enterprises become
more productive, expand their operations,
find new markets and sales channels, and/
or become export ready.6
In Colombia, the Coffee Region and
the Pacific Region have identified the agro-
industrial sector as a primary target for ICT
development. Fedesoft estimates agricul-
ture is the fifth-largest sector in demand for
software. However, only 22 companies—or
2.3 percent of the total—provide software
services for this sector. These companies
include Apolo, Surtifacil, Insoft, SIO, Open
Systems and Parquesoft.7
ICT can enhance the competitiveness
of the agriculture sector in the following
ways:
• Providing access to market informa-
tion, including current market prices,
market demand, and customer identifi-
cation. Providing access to other critical
information, including weather updates,
water conditions, crop-specific educa-
tional content, and guidance on how to
treat pests and diseases
• Facilitating transactions, ranging from
text messaging or mobile services, to
negotiations between buyers and sellers,
to non-cash methods of payment, or even
microinsurance8
• Enabling tracking/tracing to enhance
food safety and security while also
enabling farmers to meet export stan-
dards, for example, the TRAZ.AR tracing
program for cattle in Argentina9
• Improving supply-chain efficiencies to
reduce waste
• Implementing applications for agribusi-
ness, including precision agriculture to
“map weather, water, soil characteristics,
and other variables and to precisely apply
5 www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/co.html,
MinTIC comments on MinTIC Policy Report: Draft Outline October 15,
2013.
6 United Nations Conference on Trade and Development
(UNCTAD), Information Economy Report 2011. ICT as an Enabler
for Private Sector Development, unctad.org/en/docs/ier2011_
en.pdf ; The World Bank Group, ICT for Greater Development
Impact. Sector Strategy, 2012. siteresources.worldbank.org/
EXTINFORMATIONANDCOMMUNICATIONANDTECHNOLOGIES/
Resources/WBG_ICT_Strategy-2012.pdf; Inter-American Development
Bank, The Imperative of Innovation. Creating Prosperity in Latin
America and the Caribbean idbdocs.iadb.org/wsdocs/getdocument.
aspx?docnum=36526246 2011; International Trends in ITC, MIT
Technology Review, 2014.
7 APCA Consortium ETI Strategic Vision. Executive Summary. 2013.
8 UNCTAD 2011.
9 International Trends in ITC . p.48 f.
fertilizers or pesticides or time harvests”
and apps to track and improve farm
management processes10
• Funding biotechnology and bioinformat-
ics research. For example, ICT programs
and services may be integrated with
ongoing research programs, such as
Cenicafe (coffee), Cenicana (sugar cane),
and CEINACUA (shrimp). MinTIC and
partners have already identified this as a
promising strategy, proposing a center of
bioinformatics and computational biol-
ogy in the Coffee region—supported by
Microsoft, Colciencias, MinTIC, National
University and SUMA—to provide “ser-
vices in processing and storage of data,
development of software and scientific
and technical support to companies.”11
There appear to be several national-
level and regional partners through which
MinTIC can pursue agriculture-related ini-
tiatives. In addition to those listed above,
the Colombian Corporation for Agricul-
ture and Farming Research (CORPOICA),
seeks to generate and transfer scientific
knowledge and technological solutions to
the agricultural sector12
and the Desarrollo
Rural con Equidad (DRE—Rural Devel-
opment and Equality Program), created
by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural
Development and managed by Finagro
under the auspices of the National Univer-
sity of Colombia, offers credit and technical
assistance incentives. DRE also subsidizes
up to 80 percent of the technical-assistance
contracting costs of small producers. Both
appear to be promising partners.13
10 Ibid.
11 APCA Consortium ETI, 2013, p. 44.
12 Inter-American Development Bank, 2011.
13 ProExport Colombia, Colombian Agribusiness Sector, 2011.
Core Recommendation
The Challenge: The agribusiness sector
needsaccesstoICTtraining,tools,andtalent
toimproveproductivity,expandgrowth
opportunities,andbecomemorecompetitive.
Proposed Solution: Partner MinTIC
services and the ICT industry with existing
public and private organizations serving
the agribusiness sector to provide ICT
training, facilitate creation of sector-specific
apps, develop information content, and
identify market potential for advanced ICT-
agribusiness products or services that can
be developed within Colombia
*
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Manufacturing
Industry accounts for 37.5 percent of
Colombia’s GDP and 13 percent of its
employment. Major categories include
textiles, food processing, oil, clothing and
footwear, beverages, chemicals, cement,
gold, coal, and emeralds.14
Auto parts,
graphic communication, cosmetics, iron
and steelworking, metalworking, textiles,
and clothing have been identified as areas
of opportunity by MinTIC and MinCIT.15
ICT is both an integral part of the global
modern manufacturing sector but a weak-
ness for many manufacturing SMEs. This
provides an opportunity to raise productiv-
ity among the latter set of firms that may
not be fully comfortable with ICT-focused
investments. Challenges to improving
productivity in the Latin American man-
ufacturing SME sector include lack of
knowledge about best practices, delays
in adopting new technologies (including
ICT), difficulty in integrating into global
supply chains, and a lack of market-based
advisory services designed for SMEs.16
None of the “productive bets” identi-
fied in the FITI report at the regional level
are traditional manufacturing industries.
However, the Santander Region has identi-
fied mining and hydrocarbons as a primary
target for ICT development. This sector
includes oil and gas, biofuels, and deriva-
tives and addresses not just exploration,
but also research, business activities, and
support services around refining and pro-
duction. ICT-related opportunities include
furnishing software services to firms in
these arenas. It is not clear how big the base
15 MinTIC comments on MinTIC Policy Report: Draft Outline October 15,
2013 and www.investincolombia.com.co/sectors.
16 Scott Andes, Stephen Ezell, and Jesus Leal, An Alternative to
Mercantilism: Manufacturing Extension Services in Latin American
and Caribbean Countries,The Information Technology Innovation
Foundation, 2013. www2.itif.org/2013-manufacturing-extension-services-
latin-america-caribbean.pdf
is, but the Forum for Information Technol-
ogy Initiatives (FITI) reports that relevant
IT firms work primarily in consulting and
“informatics programs,” followed by data
processing and maintenance and repair of
office equipment.
The specific applications that will be
valuable to industrial firms will vary widely
by industry and company size and sophis-
tication. Here we summarize overall policy
approaches to accelerating and deepen-
ing enterprise adoption of ICT, which can
enhance the competitiveness of the manu-
facturing sector:
• For the majority of manufacturing SMEs,
policy approaches should be:
·· Offer basic training, tailored to
manufacturing enterprises, exist-
ing productivity and communication
tools, which may range from basic
spreadsheets to production-schedul-
ing tools.
·· Support development of industry-
specific content for marketing/sales
outreach (creating websites, using
e-mail and social media for customer
contact); share market and trends
information, and create best-prac-
tices content and case studies.
·· Teach how to use various ICT-
enabled transaction tools such as
payment services or money transfer,
and possibly connect firms to more
sophisticated credit, savings, and
insurance financial services.
• For more sophisticated SMEs with
greater growth potential:
·· Introduce cloud-based services that
can lower ICT costs to businesses.
(Inform, train, connect).
·· Offer ICT training or services
to enable firms to become
export ready—via global market
information, standards adoption and
training, international certifications,
and connecting to the supply chain.
·· Raise awareness of ongoing
ICT-related innovation and RD ini-
tiatives in their industry and region,
primarily through the cluster initia-
tive and centers of excellence.
MinTIC may not be the right entity to
provide all of these services directly to
manufacturing SMEs, though the proposed
MinTIC Academy can play a developmen-
tal and supporting role. Prior to changing
their behavior, small businesses tend to
turn first to peers in their community or
industry, then to trusted intermediaries,
such as trade groups, educational insti-
tutions, or local leaders. ICT services to
manufacturing SMEs should be provided
via trusted intermediaries and existing
industry communities.
Accordingly, MinTIC should not lead—
except as a convener—but should partner
with existing industry groups (such as
ACOLFA (Colombian Association of Auto
Parts Manufacturers) or Clúster Textil y
Confección in the textile industry) and
business service providers (including the
National Apprenticeship Service (SENA)
and Productive Transformation Programs
(PTP)) to offer relevant ICT programming.
To the extent possible, MinTIC should join
existing industry support initiatives to
learn more about industry issues and how
MinTIC can help, rather than pushing ICT
solutions on their own.
To expand this network and encourage
ICT adoption, vouchers or other incentives
for ICT or innovation-related services and
purchases should be provided. As Frame-
work 3 observes, the innovation voucher
approach will also create demand for ICT
services and help that sector to develop.
Large, sophisticated manufacturing
firms will need an entirely different type
of ICT support service since they have the
resources and experience to implement
their own internal ICT processes. They are
more likely to look to MinTIC for policy
support for intellectual property rights
protection, RD/innovation investments
(already in place, for example, via Col-
ciencias, the Administrative Department
of Science, Technology, and Innovation),
and are more willing to participate in new
programs—such as the CEMEX-MinTIC
effort. Finally, access to top-quality IT
talent is often a critical issue for large
firms, regardless of sector. Talent will be
addressed separately in Framework Area 4.
Services
Services account for 56 percent of Colom-
bia’s GDP and 68 percent of employment.17
Energy, business-process outsourcing and
offshoring (BPOO), and nature and health
Competitiveness
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tourism have been identified as areas of
opportunity. Electrical energy and ser-
vices are also included under PTP18
in this
category, as is software and ICT, which is
covered separately under Framework 3 in
this report.
Bankingandfinancialservices has been
identified as a focal point in the FITI report
for the Cundinamarca region, but is not
highlighted elsewhere as a priority sec-
tor. In Colombia, as in other countries, the
banking and financial sector is a major con-
sumer of ICT services. These ICT products
and services may be developed and ser-
viced internally or they may be outsourced
to other firms or universities. Banks also
exhibit a high demand for internationally
certified talent, often buy foreign soft-
ware, and are reportedly dissatisfied with
the existing Colombian products in this
niche. Growth opportunities are seen in
offshoring, custom development, testing,
and adapting software to local markets.19
The Antioquia Region has identified
the energy services sector as a primary
target for ICT development. This sector
includes electrical energy generation and
transmission. The cluster includes several
major companies as well as a large base
of microenterprises, a strong chamber of
commerce as a unifying agent, research
organizations, university involvement, and
a small set of software companies that serve
the industry.20
The PTP also recognizes this
sector, emphasizing actions related to “spe-
cialization, the adoption of international
standards, certifications, or best practice
models” to support industry growth.
Business Process Outsourcing and Off-
shoring(BPO) is not identified as a primary
target for ICT development at the regional
level in the FITI report. However, it is a pri-
18 www.ptp.com.co/contenido/contenido.aspx?catID=692conID=467
19 APCA Consortium ETI, 2013, p. 40-41.
20 APCA Consortium ETI, 2013.
ority sector for both the PTP and Proexport
Colombia. This sector reportedly created
84 thousand jobs in 2011 and grew 61 per-
cent over the last four years for a total of
210,700 positions in 2012. Major segments
served are telecommunications, “other,”
and banking services, with the majority
(60 percent) of these jobs in inbound call
centers. Back office operations account for
only 6 percent of the total. Talent is a major
issue for this segment, and the government
has already initiated targeted programs
to address BPO workforce needs. They
include a US $12 million initiative between
the Inter-American Development Bank
(IDB) and PTP to strengthen Colombia’s
human capital through a “finishing school”
model, and the $18m Instituto Colombiano
de Credito Educativo y Estudios Tecnicos en
el Exterior (ICETEX) and MinTIC Talento
Digital effort to train ICT talent.21
Tourism is not identified as a primary
target for ICT development in the FITI
report. However, it is a priority sector for
both the PTP and Proexport Colombia. The
tourism industry in Colombia is growing
rapidly (10 percent average annual growth
from 2000-2012). The PTP breaks the
industry down into medical tourism and
wellness (building on the country’s well-
regarded and relatively inexpensive health
care sector and proximity to key population
centers in the Americas) and nature tour-
ism (building on the country’s biodiversity
and its large number of protected areas).
The key issues here are developing
21 www.investincolombia.com.co/sectors/services/bpo.html
labor specialties, study programs, and
promotion. On the front end, broadband
access is also critically important for com-
munication and outreach , using websites,
social media, and e-commerce channels22
to provide services to potential customers
around the world. IT-enabled back-office
functions for managing operations effi-
ciently are also vital to success.
Each of these subsectors will require
tailored ICT initiatives, but a unifying
theme is the need to develop industry and
ICT talent. The question of talent will be
addressed directly in Framework Area 4,
but its key themes include raising overall
education levels, helping individuals obtain
relevant industry and international certi-
fications, and supporting second language
and multiple language (especially English)
proficiency.
Logistics
Foreign trade in Colombia is expected to
triple over the next five years (especially
in oil, gas and coal).23
Transportation and
logistics is one of the most promising areas
in which ICT investments can significantly
increase competitiveness, with a large
impact on output and other economic mea-
sures. For example, a 10 percent reduction
in freight costs could increase international
imports by 45 percent and regional imports
by 60 percent. Improving two key supply-
chain barriers—border administration and
transport and communications infrastruc-
22 Inter-American Development Bank, Bridging Gaps, Building
Opportunity. Broadband as a Catalyst of Economic Growth and Social
Progress in Latin America and the Caribbean. A View from Industry. 2012.
issuu.com/idb_publications/docs/technicalnotes_en_71258
CREDIT:OECD/ECLAC/DEVELOPMENTBANKOFLATINAMERICA(CAF)(2013),LATIN
AMERICANECONOMICOUTLOOK2014:LOGISTICSANDCOMPETITIVENESSFOR
DEVELOPMENT,OECDPUBLISHING.
Chapter 4
ARG

BOL

BRA

CHL

COL

CRI
DOM

ECU

GTM

JAM

MEX

PER

URY
VEN

-‐40000

-‐30000

-‐20000

-‐10000

0

10000

20000

30000

40000

50000

60000

-‐1
-‐0.5
0
0.5
1
1.5

OECD
Other
countries

Lacn
America

LaborproductivitynotexplainedbyGDPpercapita
Logistics performance not explained by GDP per capita
MEX

Competitiveness
T
Logistics and Labor Productivity (values)

ture and related services— “even halfway to
the world’s best practices” would reportedly
increase global GDP by nearly 5 percent
and exports by 14.5 percent.24
Latin America, and Colombia specifi-
cally, have a relatively high proportion
of “time-sensitive and logistics-intensive
exports” (such as agricultural products,
energy products (oil, gas and coal) and
clothing) but they still lag OECD coun-
tries on logistics/infrastructure measures.
ICT for logistics is one of four short-term
investment categories recommended by
the OECD for improving performance.
If logistics includes “all the services and
processes needed to transport goods and
services from the point of production to
the end consumer,” areas of ICT-related
needs range from administrative and cus-
toms procedures to transport organization
and management to tracking and tracing
services. Robust and reliable telecommu-
nications infrastructure is also vital. 25
Colombia is already addressing its
logistics challenges. The country is “under-
taking massive developmental initiatives
to build up its infrastructure,” investing in
airports, roads, highways, and seaports.26
The National Development Plan seeks to
triple port capacity.27
Colombia has also
made important ICT-related progress in
24 OECD, Policies for Boosting Logistics Performance in Latin America,
in Latin American Economic Outlook 2014, pp. 125-157. 2013 citing the
World Economic Forum.
25 Ibid.
26 Gartner, Analysis of Colombia as an Offshore Services Location, October
2012.
27 APCA Consortium ETI, 2013.
document handling and customs proce-
dures, and has implemented electronic
data interchanges for taxes and duties
(MUISCA) and the single window for for-
eign trade (VUCE). The OECD reports
that, “In all, the time required for document
preparation, customs clearance and tech-
nical control, as well as port and terminal
handling, is competitive as compared to
other Latin American countries and close
to high-income OECD economies.”28
The Caribbean region has identified
logistics and transport as a primary target
for ICT development. 67 percent of the
country’s port traffic is in the Caribbean
region (2011). Of this traffic, 72 percent
is attributable to foreign trade, while the
remainder comes from loading, trans-
fers, and transits. Looked at another way,
56 percent of exports and imports went
through Caribbean ports. Furthermore, the
Caribbean region accounts for 15 percent
of the country’s passenger traffic. Beyond
the Caribbean region, Bogotá reportedly
has the leading airport in Latin America
by total cargo traffic.29
The logistics sector may have a core
of potential “anchor companies” or multi-
national corporations with which to build
relationships. The FITI report notes that 15
of the largest marine transport companies
28 World Bank, Doing Business in Colombia 2013, Executive Summary, p.
4. doingbusiness.org/~/media/GIAWB/Doing%20Business/Documents/
Subnational-Reports/DB13-Colombia-Overview.pdf
29 Proexport Colombia, Automotive Industry in Colombia, April 2012.
www.investincolombia.com.co/attachments/Automotive%20Industry%20
in%20Colombia%20-%20April%202012.pdf
in the world are located in the Caribbean
region, and it seems unlikely they are there
merely for sales, in contrast to the ICT mul-
tinationals operating in Colombia.
The logistics sector is inherently ICT-
oriented. Companies generally do not
have to be convinced that it is worthwhile
to become ICT-savvy. Other advantages
from MinTIC’s perspective is that this
sector appears to have anchor companies
in the country already, global standards
have been established, and Colombia
has already made strong progress in its
national ICT systems. Strong growth is
forecast, with accompanying opportuni-
ties for many of the other strategic sectors
and regional productive bets. Furthermore,
ICT investments in this sector may be per-
ceived as relatively inexpensive compared
to the massive infrastructure investments
underway.
ICT can enhance the competitiveness
of the transportation and logistics sector
in the following ways:
• Regional needs identified by FITI:30
·· software and information systems for
port security
·· crane simulators
·· tugs and optimum docking
·· prediction systems of warehouse
traffic
·· mobility in ports
·· meteorological and climate
predictions.
• Foci to improve global competitiveness:31
·· Customs automation
·· Ability to track and trace goods in
transit at every stage of the process
·· Risk analysis for trade in goods
·· Electronic submission of customs
forms and documents
·· Information management and
terminal operations
·· Electronic “single window” for
import and export documentation
(VUCE)
·· Streamlining technical and
administrative procedures.
MinTIC should coordinate with other
national level organizations that are
31 OECD, Policies for Boosting Logistics Performance in Latin America.
SOURCE:WORLDECONOMICFORUM
Competitiveness
Ambitious scenario
Countries improve trade facilitation
halfway to global best practice
Modest scenario
Countries improve trade facilitation
halfway to regional best practice
Tariffs
All tariffs removed
globally
4.7%
14.5% 2.6%
9.4%
0.7%
10.1%
2.6
1.6 1.5
1.0
0.4
1.1
The GDP effect of reducing supply chain barriers
is much higher than for removing tariffs
3
2
1
0
Trade
GDP
($USTRILLION)
Increase in trade and GDP under three barrier-removal scenarios

MIT TR - Colombia ICT Ecosystems - Innovation Policy Report - Rpt 2 - Mar 5 2014

MIT TR - Colombia ICT Ecosystems - Innovation Policy Report - Rpt 2 - Mar 5 2014

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