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officials discuss the launch of a new u.s. development program looking at how cities in latin america and the caribbean can apply technology and databased solutions to tackle urban challenges. from the atlantic council, this is just under an hour and a half. mr. brookie: good morning, thank you all so much for being here today. my name is graham brookie and i am the vice president for technology programs here at the atlantic council. this is a special event on driving smart cities in latin america and the caribbean. i have to say one quick point of order, the intro music for this event today is markedly better, comparably, to the rest of the atlantic council events, and i think that is probably specific to the subject matter we are working on. it is our particular honor to count with us today sitting here with us on stage, first and foremost, ambassador brian nichols, assistant secretary for western hemisphere affairs. and jennifer bachus, inaugural

-- accurate to say? -- inaugural assistant deputy for the bureau of cyberspace and digital policy. both from the department of state, who have chosen the atlantic council today to launch their program aimed at empowering local governments. the digital agenda for transformation in the americas, which for those of you who are acronym nerds, translates to data -- data for cities initiative. more on that in a second. across the region, the strategic and responsible adoption of smart city practices and technologies is already helping to strengthen local governance, make service provision more efficient and empower the financial capacities of municipalities across the hemisphere. we are going to get into a lot of examples and so i will spare you in the conversation throughout the rest of the session today. and we are joined today online and here in the atlantic council 's new studios by

representatives from across the region who have driven the adoption of digital adaptation for urban development, including mayor of plano's -- including the mayor of buenos aires, the secretary of science and technology of guatemala, and the former ministry of technology innovation and communication of colombia, diego milano. we are also joined by keith, the regional director for latin america and the caribbean, from u.s. trade and development agency. and andrew, director of the department of information technology services at the organization of american states. as well as our own edwards words of the latin america initiative and diego, of the latin america centers. this event, organized with partners at the department of state, and the initiative whose announcement we have the honor of hosting, are all about what we are about here at the

atlantic council, and that is why this year we launched the atlantic council's technology programs, which motivated our sense of responsibility to drive innovation in big, new, and ambitious ways, across all of the tech programs here at the atlantic council, we are all on one team that better enables us to work with programs like the latin american center, who are leading a lot of the work across the region. so, really excited to get into the conversation today, and it is my honor to introduce the first segment with assistant secretary brian nichols and jennifer bachus, moderated by my fellow vice president of the atlantic council, jason marczak. who leads the latin america center. over to jason. mr. marczak: thank you so much, graham. that opening music, i think we own the rights to that for another two years. we will be happy to take suggestions for after that period. i'm thrilled to be joined on

stage by assistant secretary nichols and principal deputy assistant secretary bacchus for this really important day and announcement of this digital agenda for transformation of the americas for cities initiative. this is really exciting and goes back to the long-standing partnership we have at the atlantic council with the state department on a whole range of different issues. the secretary and i were talking about this together in the bahamas not long ago. let me set the context for the conversation and jump into questions. as many in the audience know, latin america is the second most urbanized region in the world, second only to north america. it is ahead of europe, asia, africa, oceana, and in fact across the hemisphere eight out of 10 people live in the cities. this was the rationale behind the u.s. hosting the first ever cities.

-- hosting the first ever summit of the americas last year following their hosting at the leader level in 2022. i was privileged, the atlantic council was privileged to be there in denver for that first ever assembly of cities of the americas. the momentum, the excitement was second to none. i know there's a lot of excitement about the continuation of that, and that's because city officials work on the front lines of global challenges and make those decisions everyday that shape this big question of really how do democracies and whether democracies are delivering on promises of services, security, and opportunity for their communities and citizens. keeping that in mind and how deeply essential good and effective local governance is for latin america's resilience and economic opportunities, i want to begin the discussion with you, assistant secretary nichols. again, welcome. before we talk about the initiative in-depth, i would like to frame this a little more. what challenges, what opportunities do you see in the adoption of digital tools by cities across the region?

and what key engagement programs is the u.s. leading to work with local governments across the region? mr. nichols: jason, first of all, thank you so much for having me. this is a great opportunity to talk about how do we deliver for the citizens of our region? you framed it perfectly. i think you stole half my talking points, about how we got here. mr. marczak: it was a mind meld. [laughter] mr. nichols: it was, that's perfect. you think about going back to 2020 and the pandemic and where our region was in terms of lack of access to education online, collapse of commerce, dramatic spike in poverty, lack of access to health care, among other things. beyond that, we have big challenges with things like

delivery of public services, addressing issues of crime and insecurity in the region. so you started talking about the summit of the americas in los angeles, 2022. i would go back one event earlier, which was the oas general assembly the year before where we started to really incorporate a digital agenda into our goals for the western hemisphere. and then we built, we had five pillars there and we built on that in the summit of the americas in los angeles. i would just note that we are building on it further with apac in san francisco and in lima. asia-pacific economic corporation, you don't immediately think about latin america, but we have a number of countries in our region that are

in a pac, and we are talking about how do you deliver for average citizens? you noted this is the most urbanized region. the smart cities piece of this and the cities of the americas in denver a year ago, year and a half ago almost, was really an opportunity to both hear from mayors, civil society, private sector, how do we deliver a digital agenda for the people in these regions? that means delivering services from the government, security, housing, transportation, and we are going to hear from experts and mayors and leaders in the region talking about how they are delivering to those areas, whether it is smart transportation in são paulo or access to housing and lighting, all those things delivered in a smart way that citizens can more

easily access and demand accountability. that's sort of the approach that we have going on. you know, i'm super excited. i don't want to suck up all the time, so i will pause there. mr. marczak: thank you, mr. secretary. i want to go over to principal deputy bachus. when we think about smart cities, we think about modernizing government, data, visualization, transformation of public services. in thinking about that, that of course means that large segments of the state are open to attack as well. in what ways is the u.s. working with regional and local governments to help with the critical tasks that become even more important as we are moving forward, on cyber capacity? ms. bachus: thank you for the question. great to be here for an event about smart cities, incredibly important because of cyber issues but also privacy issues,

because he was running your technology will ultimately determine who has access to the information about your citizens and how that information is being used. so it's great to be here. we similarly have had long-standing cooperation, particularly with the oas, on cyber security. i had the opportunity to participate in the last two cybersecurity summits. one was in the dominican republic, one was in the bahamas, and talk about how we can support this region in making sure that you reduce the attack surface, that you increase resilience, that you don't have either state-sponsored or non-state-sponsored actors coming in and going after services. it's great to put things online, something we think creates transparency, accessibility, but ultimately if you are creating the ability for either ransomware actors or state-sponsored actors to take down those services, you have

created a tremendous problem. we have seen this in the region, but almost any country in the world has had this problem. you need to do the basics upfront. you need to make sure that these opportunities, that these systems are secure. you need to have cyber hygiene, national cybersecurity strategy. you need to figure out who is in charge of which part, which is complicated in the u.s. and throughout the region. we have seen tremendous strides over the last five years as countries have adopted cybersecurity frameworks, have shown up to discuss a variety of issues, and to make sure this data is secure. the security comes from basic cybersecurity but also who is running those systems. that part we do need to continue to pay a lot of attention to. it's one of the reasons i am excited the u.s. government is investing in smart cities in

this region because ultimately i think it will bring about not just economic prosperity but national security for this region that is so important to the united states. mr. marczak: thank you so much. now i'm going to go to why we are here today, to talk about the digital agenda for transformation in the americas, that incredible data acronym. what is the initiative? why is it so important? what are you hoping to achieve? i will turn to you, secretary nichols. mr. nichols: this is $4.75 million that's going to go in a few areas. there will be an incubator and accelerator for projects around cities. there will be capacity building efforts and there will be financing opportunities for projects. this is really going to allow cities, individuals, civil society organizations who have

ideas about some element of their urban space to come in, get the financing that they need, get their training and capacity building done, all of those things, to be able to engage and deliver more rapidly for their citizens. so, imagine you want better sewage treatment and you have an idea around that. this means you have access to start up financing. this means training and perfecting your project, sharpening it. this is going to be available throughout our region, and our institutions, like u.s. tva, development finance corporation, usaid, come in to support these efforts as well, not to mention all the other sources of financing. mr. marczak: it's incredibly

exciting. we will hear from u.s. tva in the upcoming panel. what does it look like, the rollout? mr. nichols: we are engaging with partners around the hemisphere. we are starting here with the atlantic council, great partners. but we will be able to engage in meetings, bringing in leaders from around the hemisphere, talking about this issue, bringing in the private sector and civil society because they are crucial partners. and then we will have opportunities to do a roadshow going forward and really go to people where they are. mr. marczak: i want to ask you one more question and then go back to the deputy assistant secretary. as we are looking at the data initiative, what's the role encouraging the long-term use of sustainable and secure smart cities technology? mr. nichols: i think that is absolutely vital. when you think about, how do you ensure that cities are properly using the information they are collecting?

there are some cities that have guarantees in place to ensure security verification of data and that that data will not be used in a way that was not authorized. and then you have some who have gone to what we would consider unreliable providers and that can be a great concern for people. whether your face is in a database that you don't control and don't have any idea how it's used can be a source of great concern for the average person. mr. marczak: principal deputy secretary bachus, i would like to get your thoughts on the importance of the initiative and additional thoughts on how it fits into some of the work achieved over the last couple of years at the city summits and other such efforts. ms. bachus: as i said, i'm so excited that we are able to show up in this way for the region, that we can say here are some opportunities, here's some resources, some capacity building. here is all the tools in the toolkit to make sure you can

have smart cities that work for your citizens to deliver the services they require. in addition to the things you mentioned in terms of what we are building on, i think we are also building on the tremendous work of the last few years on how you govern data. how is data -- and by that i don't refer to the great acronym here -- but you can't go to smart cities without the basics on connectivity, data, privacy, transfer of information, and how have you built out all of that, including as we talked about earlier, cybersecurity. smart cities should come on top of a really well-thought-out digital ecosystem plan. if you start with smart cities and no idea over who is governing it, how it's going, who has access to the information, you end up with a free-for-all over this. and again, to assistant secretary's nichols point, it doesn't give the citizens confidence. personally i don't want my

information in an insecure database. i don't want anyone tracking where i'm going or what i'm doing. as a citizen, it is incredibly important you put these guardrails in place to make sure that the information is being used in a way that accords with the values i hold dear. mr. marczak: i would assume also avoiding reinventing the wheel in each city, right? it's an opportunity to look at some of the different best practices, what are the lessons learned, and how different city leaders are dealing with those individual challenges, cybersecurity or deployment of better smart city technology. ms. bachus: i would note, as the assistant secretary nichols said, the multi-stakeholder approach is incredibly important. it can't just be government saying here is what we are going to do. you have to build it from the outset. who are the companies, how are they going to use it? what do they think is interesting and what does civil society think? academia, technical communities, all of this needs to be built-in from the outset. our policymaking process in the united states is built around the idea that you roll these things out through a

multi-stakeholder approach, and that it does include citizens having a voice in the technology. if i can get a smart city that makes it so i don't hit every single red light between my house and where i'm trying to go, that's great, but i would like to make sure that i'm not personally being tracked while doing that. mr. marczak: yeah, yeah, and i think there is also so much expectation about the opportunities smart cities can create, especially in terms of greater transparency around governance and the importance of cybersecurity, which is so vital for ensuring citizens' trust in the technology being deployed. assistant secretary nichols, last question, for those whether in the room or watching online who are excited about the initiative, what's your advice to them as far as next steps? mr. nichols: well, watch this space. we have an email address for those who want to reach out and contact us directly, it is dataforcities@state.gov.

great opportunity for you to send us your ideas or express your concerns. in your city, i'm sure there are going to be a lot of people who have ideas about what can be improved. i encourage people to build coalitions to work with those municipal leaders, civil society organizations, the private sector to develop your ideas. we look forward to working with training, with incubator work. and i expect that we are going to see some really great projects. we already have smart lighting. e-bikes. recycling projects. housing. education. those are all things going on in our hemisphere already. maybe your community doesn't have all those things and you would like to find ways to bring

them to you, or you have a new idea that none of us have thought of. this is a great opportunity for you and our partnership with u.s. tda, the development finance corporation, usaid, and other sources to help scale that depending on the needs for your urban area. mr. marczak: as we wrap up, as we are all hearing, this is incredibly exciting. this shows the next frontiers in which the state department is moving to be able to address some key challenges but also be a partner in some incredible opportunities we are seeing across the region. as we talked about in the outset, the importance of cities for moving forward opportunities to show that democracies really do deliver on priorities that citizens have across the region. assistant secretary nichols, thank you so much for joining us. principal deputy secretary baucus, thank you so much.

i'm going to now invite diego, deputy director for strategic development at the atlantic council asian american center, to introduce and moderate our next conversation. thank you both. [applause] [no audio] >> buenos dias. >> [translated] thank you, good morning to everyone. i see some familiar faces. the first thing i would like to do to kick off this conversation is to extend our true thanks,

not the protocolary diplomatic thanks, but real thanks to the people who come out on a cold and rainy d.c. morning. thank you so much. give yourself an applause for being here. thank you to you, diego, for the exact same thing. and thanks to those who are joining us from other countries, virtually, including minister montenegro and mayor macri. to those who are here in person, just outside the room there are listening devices, if you would like to have simultaneous interpretation into english. >> speakers are available outside the room. for those online, simply click on the english version on our website. [speaking spanish] [translated] we have just heard

from two u.s. government officials spearheading this initiative. we have heard details about this exciting initiative to bring more resources and opportunities to latin america and the caribbean. in addition to access and modernization, we are also talking about services for the people as beneficiaries, and this in a world that is undergoing a whirlwind of changes over time. people are seeking information. there is instagram and scrolling all over. i just found a video of a robot prototype that helps you with household chores, and it will help you take care of your pet and other tasks. and in a quantum energy flux,

too, enhanced reality and all sorts of changes. with all these changes, almost half of the population of latin america and the caribbean doesn't have access to the internet. so we have a great deal of work to do, and that's why we welcome this initiative, and we hope that it will help, especially given the political changes coming. so we have three panelists here that will be sharing their own experiences with us in -- their experiences with this in argentina, guatemala, and colombia. so, diego was the intended for vicente lopez. he was a provincial deputy in windows i raise. he cofounded a political party with his brother and has led initiatives having to do with

digital infrastructure security and modernization of public services. he is now the mayor of buenos aires. then we have gabriella montenegro, phd in nutrition sciences from germany. she has studies in biomedical engineering from the free university of amsterdam. but most importantly for our conversation today, she is an important figure in modernization in her country, focusing her efforts on closing development gaps between rural and rural areas, and we will be talking about that with her. and then in person in cold and rainy d.c., we have diego milano, a colombian leader who has been recognized for his work in innovation policy. he was a minister of technology and tic's in technology and his experience includes poverty reduction, improving conductivity, and modernizing public services. thank you to all of you for

being here. >> [translated] mockery, we know that buenos aires is a city leader in digital governance and modernizing services. i would like to know what made it possible and what made the successful policies to continue to survive throughout the political change? >> [translated] diego, thank you. thank you to the atlantic council and the department of state for inviting me to participate in this event. and greetings to my two fellow panelists, diego and dr. montenegro. i think the most relevant thing here is government stability, sustainable plans throughout time, a shared vision with former mayors that has become public policy. but in addition, a partnership

with the private sector, or with citizens, so companies that are part of this ecosystem, i always say that the city of buenos aires doesn't have renewable. certainly it has human capital. we have had 14 unicorns that came out of the region, 11 of them out of the city of buenos aires. there's a lot of innovative talent linked to these digital and technology ecosystems. i would like here to say something else. when you were -- when i was waiting to be accepted in the zoom room, or rather -- i would like to provide you with a general framework that should be taken into account by all of those who have some responsibility with them. this is a time of real

uncertainty. we have climate change, evolution and revolution. like technological evolution and revolution. because ai will actually really disrupt markets and will affect them deeply. it's a moment of a great deal of uncertainty. we thought we had all of the answers and suddenly the questions changed. for that, we need to be humble. last week we had a meeting here with experts on ai from the capital city union of american iberian-american cities, where we had government, private companies, and students participating. i talked about this, when you are dealing with a lot of uncertainty, the worst thing is to have someone who thinks they have all the answers. when we are dealing with climate

change, we have evolution and also a revolution. if it's an evolution, you can get on the train and run with it. but when it's a revolution, you have winners and losers, so you have to be humble. we have to understand what information is certain and we have to exchange information very fast. because what happened in the past in five or 10 years, now it happens within six months. you have to be constantly moving. you don't have to think that whatever decision you make today is written on stone or that you are not willing to change it in the future. we need critical thinking and we need to review decisions constantly, especially at such an uncertain and aggressive moment in terms of changes. mayor macri, before we move on to guatemala, i wanted to ask you something else. i was reviewing the artificial

intelligence bought used in the city of buenos aires. how has it helped you to reduce digital gaps? >> [translated] well, at the base it uses artificial intelligence, and we developed it during the pandemic. it gave us a quick bridge to establish linkages in terms of legislation and how to address the covid pandemic. it could be about making a request for assistance for a medication or even for getting access to vaccination. it has evolved now. we have generated intelligence, so among the whatsapp chat you can say, i am in windows areas, i'm going to spend two days here. i have two children, please let me know what cultural and free programs there are in windows areas. the chat answers you with different proposals. really that bought is the tip of

the iceberg of a government that is technology-based with a lot of information exchanged and that uses the same kind of artificial intelligence tools for traffic, climate, security, safety. it has allowed us to reduce response time to an emergency i many minutes. every minute saves lives. it has allowed us to reduce in more than 1000 cases with predictive systems linked to crime to arrive earlier with a patrol, because we have mapped the city. it has allowed us to have a digital ring with more than 4 million license plates that come into the city and leave the city on a daily basis. so we have information about the city.

sometimes we have a criminal in a stolen car, and we detect one a day at least. that has helped us reduce the criminality rate in this sense by a lot. so it is a user-friendly bot, artificial intelligence-based, and we have added generative artificial intelligence for questions that require -- request very creative answers by the government. it's amazing, some of these success indicators you have are quite positive. the objective of this conversation is for decision-makers from other countries to hear from successful experiences in other cities to try to replicate them. let me go back to my initial question in the region, where at least half the population doesn't have access to the internet. we have cities doing incredible

things, like buenos aires. this is the perfect segue to minister montenegro, who has an incredible story about how she reduced gaps and included the most vulnerable ones. minister montenegro, thank you for being here with us today. i would like you to talk a little bit more about how you did all of this with your projects. >> [translated] good morning. for me it's an honor to be here. thank you very much for the invitation. greetings to my fellow panelists. i would like to add something to what has been said so far. we would like to have successful experiences already collected, but we are just starting. i wanted to let you know that guatemala is a country with a great deal of inequality, not only in urban areas, and i have been asked about the differences in terms of rural areas and urban areas.

well, we can start with language. language is, the language spoken in rural areas is different and we have economic inequality with challenges that have to do with connectivity or electrification. a lot of inequality across the country. we are moving forward for sure. i undertook my position in the month of march. part of our commitment was precisely to try to make sure that technology reaches those that need it most and make sure that gaps don't increase. they may not be reduced, but at least we wanted to stop them from growing. that is our commitment. we are working with community centers, with solar panel

technology too, and with women's groups. this has been an experience that came from the previous administration and we are supporting it. we are seeing it as an opportunity to reach rural women also in their own language so that we can help them start with the process, for example, to get an id or things like that, which can be done online. it's not only about connectivity itself, it's about literacy. it's about educating people. we saw a great opportunity in terms of how technology can be used. we think that this is a tool to be able to bridge some gaps. we are also afraid that inequality may increase and then for this to become a monster that cannot be controlled.

and then people will stop being the center of society and the robots will replace this center, citizens basically being the center of society. we have people that cannot read and so on and so forth. we need to make sure we take care of the ethical part of the question and we need to work both at the same time. the ethical part of it and the connectivity. the easiest part is going to be improved connectivity. the hardest part is going to be to develop that culture of transformation. something else i wanted to add is that i would like for this to become a public policy. we just started but we are really lagging behind. there was a lot of determination to start with an open government initiative, but the steps have been small. the government is committed and we are working with different working groups.

progress has been slow but at least steady. we are trying to integrate the different stakeholders. one of them, a very important one, being civil society. >> [translated] thank you for you, for your work, for this initiative that was launched today. our guest poses some very important opportunities, especially for rural areas. obviously we are not going to solve the issue of poverty or inequality in the region, but hopefully we will add to the solution. let me go back to washington, d.c. minister, thank you for being here. you have a great deal of experience in terms of public service digitalization and a lot of successful examples, bearing in mind what has happened. can you talk to us about the experiences, lessons learned, and things that could be replicated in other countries , other cities? what has civil society or the

private sector learned about all of this, for example? >> [translated] thank you very much for your invitation. it's a pleasure to be here. it wasn't hard to be here, my office is a block away. but the difficult part of it is that i am leaving, flying to bogotá in an hour and a half. well, we need to bear in mind different things. in terms of gaps, i am a member of a board of a group that has been working on the most important report on technology in the world and we published it a few days ago. we found out that the gap is basically, if you analyze the country ranking we are more or less all of us at the same level, but in absolute terms the gap is growing. that's like when you ride in a bicycle, you have the peloton in the front, you are in the back, pedaling really hard, but the

ones in the front are pedaling harder. you think you are doing really well because you are pedaling, pedaling, but the truth is, the gap is growing. in latin america, 78% of latin americans are connected to the internet. you wonder, are they well connected to the internet? what do i mean? like you are here in washington, d.c., fiber-optic at home with a terminal at home. in latin america, households with children, less than 15% with children are well connected to the internet, because most of them are connected through 4g or 5g networks and through prepayment services that are used up fast. when you use up your data, then you connect through different systems via whatsapp, meta, and so on. but that's not really the internet, so that gap continues to grow. we also found out the problem is not in terms of infrastructure. of course we need to keep

building infrastructure, but the problem is how people are using technology. the gap is more on the user's side, on the demand side. we have focused for too long on the supply side, infrastructure. we need to make sure that people use it and are productive. how do you solve the issue? well, i think that dr. gabriela and mayor macri have hit the nail on the head. the main issue that we have in latin america is talent. in the ranking that we have in the report we are going to publish in terms of digital talent, we are really at the bottom. we are really at the bottom. we need to improve our higher education for people to be ready to join the labor market.

fewer and fewer people are going to university so we are not producing talent. that is what mayor macri said, in their city they have a lot of entrepreneurs and a lot of talent in that regard. this is not about copying and pasting, it's about coming together. in terms of digital technology, economy, -- digital economy, the main element for success is scale economies. everyone uses the same word, the same whatsapp that people use in indonesia. the same google that people use in latin america. however, every city is coming up with their own app, their own technology, their own solution. what we have to do is come together, and maybe the atlantic council could be an important stakeholder to bring everyone together and standardize everything and have scale economies.

that's the most important thing, scale economies. >> [translated] in the second city summit, i think that would be a great opportunity to drive and initiative like you are describing. that's going to bring everybody together, civil society, private sector, etc. exactly. because as jennifer was saying, the ecosystem needs to have a foundation that is common to everyone. we need to get on the same page, build that ecosystem, so that we are all working with the same thing. then develop your applications so you can have economies of scale and its urgent, as mayor macri said. and we have actually been following the example of buenos aires closely.

it's really a reference. the more that we standardize, the better it's going to go for all of us. >> [translated] yes. so let's go to the second round of questions. we will have a bit of a more dynamic exchange. we don't have a lot of time, but i didn't want to miss the opportunity to ask the mayor, who has committed to the atlantic council to leading this. especially because you have been working on this for a while. what are these suggestions you would give to cities that are just beginning to adopt technologies? what lessons learned could you share? >> [translated] as diego said, this isn't about copying and pasting, but i could use another metaphor. when you have the different pelotons in cycling, right? colombia is better in cycling than even argentina is. you don't want one group slowing

down the other group. you let the faster peloton move ahead and break records. but you also don't want to leave anybody behind. so the leaders show the way. but nobody falls behind. and i will be happy to try to take the lead on this. i think we can reach out to companies and take advantage of different meetings, etc., that have partnerships. because you can identify the creative initiatives. and we in the government tend to be slow, so we aren't always the best source. one good way to close gaps is to think about digitization, but not just that. we need to focus on english as a language, too.

there is a gap they are too, because everything that happens in the technology world happens in english. so, we have bilingual education with 180,000 students that graduated this year. with digitization and english, this goes hand in hand. the digital platforms can help people learn english and it will help everybody have greater access in the technology world. and then there is an initiative where in the beginning we are going to be the lead city in this, opening up three centers, tumo if you are not familiar with it.

it's a non-formal education mechanism that originated in armenia, led by an iranian raised successful entrepreneur in the u.s. it's a marvelous system that really generates creativity in the arts and in this digital ecosystem. so design, robotics. all of this becomes accessible to kids 13 and up. it's a place where they can build new knowledge. it's wonderful. in that age, as the secretary was saying, from 13 to 18, kids are bored in classrooms. we need to help them ask questions and not just answer ours. here is where we can use technological opportunities. it's a wonderful tool. english, working with the private sector, and then tumo

is a great way to challenge the more traditional educational models. >> [translated] what else can the multilateral world do in neighbor countries like the u.s.? the private sector, civil society, what else can be done in your mission to help close the gaps in your country, secretary? >> [translated] i am totally in agreement with the idea of regional standardization. all of this technology is based on data. we need to gather the data. and have that be the platform for the next step. now, vis-à-vis what the mayor said, i have to take issue with a little bit. you are focusing on english but we are looking at it differently. we believe that the native languages should be respected and fostered as well. one can have both, of course.

one important thing, analyzing it's important to analyze our strengths and weaknesses and build on that. mainly, it's true, we cannot copy and paste, but i think at a minimum we need to see where we are with regards to others and how we can take that next step without having to go through everything that everyone else went through. i have been in dialogues with other countries of the region. i see that there could be some leapfrogging. there are many challenges in terms of planning to actually have a smart, sustainable city.

it requires solid planning in advance. what i would like the most is to have more dialogues like these, and work with like-minded countries, countries working on the same thing, and to work at the level of strategy. there are talks of laws, but i think you need to go to something even more basic first. i would like to see a continuation of these dialogues. we need to analyze properly where we are and what is possible to do in one administration. but above all, i'm clear that we cannot allow the gaps to continue to grow. >> [translated] thank you, secretary montenegro. it's important to bring decision-makers and leaders together from different areas, as we do have such diversity in our region.

now, diego, polarization is an issue around the world and the region is not immune to that. what public policies regarding technology and public goods, etc., which are going to be able to survive these political headwinds? >> [translated] well, i think that the private sector can help with this. when we work with a country, a start up -- when you look at a start up, how much does the idea cost? zero. nothing. the value of a startup is not in the idea, it's in the execution, in making it happen. the same thing is true in public

policy. the plan is worth nothing. it's as mayor macri says, the value lies in doing it, and that's what people have to see. my plan is to create a new economy around the digital economy, new exports, new development. or my plan can be modernize cities, iron out the kinks in the bureaucracy, or improve public safety. it's a major issue in latin america. the key is execution, implementation, put your money where your mouth is, as the americans say. so i want to stop being an advisor and be an implementer. i'm going to be moving to bogoáa to operationalize some of these things. there is an initiative whose

main shareholder is the district of bogotá, so to speak. we are going to implement a new era of smart cities in bogotá. so you need to, in light of polarization, focus on what is truly worth something. >> [translated] thank you and good luck with your new responsibility. thank you for being here mayor, secretary. thank you for joining us as well. we know you are incredibly busy. we are going to move on now to yet another panel with my colleague, valentina. we will also be hearing from the private sector. we are going to hear from amazon web services too with a video. thank you to everybody. >> hello, everyone. i am the managing director of the latin america public sector team at amazon web services.

i am recording today from sunny las vegas and i wanted to extend a special thank you to the atlantic council's latin america center and the u.s. department of state for the invitation to share a few thoughts with you today. i'm honored to be talking to this distinguished audience, and it's great to see my fellow argentine jorge macri, mayor of buenos aires, also present. empowering communities with the latest smart city technology offerings is critically important, as big urban centers are attracting more and more people. by 2050, it is expected 70% of the total world population will live in -- through strategic analysis of urban data, designed around urban infrastructure, and a focus on improving citizen

services, cities can increase citizen satisfaction and optimize the use of resources, all while meeting climate sustainability goals. the private sector provides government customers with cutting edge cloud infrastructure and i.t. services to achieve these objectives. pantomimes national civil protection system, for example, created an early warning flood system that in a river watershed that uses artificial intelligence modeling to save lives. another example comes from a state in mexico, where state officials are using their own data in near real time to generate insights and make decisions quickly. the impact ranges from preventing student dropouts to providing economic support to the most vulnerable populations.

these two examples and many more we could share are just the start of what we believe will become a great area of innovation that will drive better, more efficient citizen services and increase the quality of life throughout latin america. enjoy the event. we look forward to hearing from all of you so that together we can think of even more ways for us to use innovative technology to help fix the many challenges facing our citizens in the hemisphere. thank you. >> thank you so much. i think that was the perfect way for us to turn to our conversation, because we have talked about the importance of these technological advancements in the scope of security, prosperity, inequality. the role of this data for cities initiative, for financing smart cities in the region, but also the inequalities in the region and the importance of digital literacy, which i think is

something that we will touch on. especially because now this conversation is supposed to emphasize the responsibility that we have in adopting some of these tools and technologies. -- digital tools and technologies. for that i am delighted to be here, joined by an esteemed group of experts who can discuss the responsibility of adopting these digital tools in the americas. i'm going to start by my right with keith eischeid. he is the regional director for latin america and the caribbean at the u.s. trade and development agency and responsible for developing and supervising activities in the region to support priority infrastructure projects and create opportunities for u.s. exports. to the right of keith is my fellow brazilian, andrew vanjani, the director of department of information and technology services at the organization of american states. the oas. and he has a long commute in this field, including within maryland's department of information and technology.

which i know will come in handy here for this conversation. and last but not least, my colleague within the atlantic council. she is the director of the capacity building initiatives within the atlantic council technology programs, where she coordinates the overarching strategy for program capacity building efforts designed to five scale policymakers, break down silos to build communities of action, and develop the next generation of the global technology workforce. basically everything we have already touched on. so to kick us off, i wanted to turn to you, keith. assistant secretary nichols just announced the launch of the digital agenda for transformation in the americas data for cities initiative. to help us kick off this discussion, how well -- how will the u.s. trade and development agency support it? mr. eischeid: thank you very much, and first of all, thank you, valentina, for moderating this panel.

to my panelists, it's a pleasure to join you. to the atlantic council, thank you for hosting us, and especially to the department of state for all of their leadership and support in this space. we are very proud to help ustda has long partnered with local governments in the region and this initiative will expand our partnerships to advance smart city infrastructure and projects in the regions. specifically our role within this initiative, as i mentioned, in your handouts as well -- we are grateful to receive funding from the state department for nearly $300 million for project preparation, particularly focused in this space. what ustda is the project preparation agency of the u.s. government. we can provide more grants for feasibility studies, technical

assistance and pilot projects that can advance smart cities projects in the region while opening up the door for u.s. technologies and solutions to provide some great advancements in this area. we can get into some more examples, but as one of the main implementors of this initiative, we are proud to be part of this and look for new projects in the smart city space. >> i am sure partners and local government around the region are excited to hear more about how this program can do for them directly and how they can get in touch to learn more. the link and the email to get in touch with for more information, i think that will also be important. across the region, from the smallest rural towns to the largest urban centers, we see implementation of technologies applied to service delivery

across the board and in many areas. these go from online systems for taxes to wholesale security monitoring systems. there are many interesting projects across latin america and the caribbean. how quickly have these new technologies and tools been incorporated into the region, and what do we mean by the responsible adoption of these tools? adoption of these tools? b yeah so let me think he was well valentina and the panelists. it's a great event and all the right folks are in the room and virtually and we hope to have a very productive discussion. over the past decade or if not longer there has been a lot of digital in the area in the caribbean mainly and i think one thing is to have the digital

adoption. i've seen also a little bit of implementation on some of these initiatives and i was talking earlier with keith on the brochure of the data for cities and they are all pilots and investments that have started with pilots and i'm curious to know if we are measuring metrics on how many of those we received i do see a lot of investment in smart cities, but i'm not sure whether they are scaling to the rural areas. we talked about this earlier. it is creating, as the minister of guatemala said, kind of a digital divide. we have more digital adoption, but the divide is expanding in a way. it could be for a variety of reasons. may be lack of connectivity that exists in rural, which i have learned in maryland, you would think are well-connected but i traveled to deep pockets of

maryland. we are not as connected as we thought we were. a couple things i would keep in mind is that fragmentation. a couple other things that i would think is from the oas perspective, our four pillars are to protect human rights and sustainable development across the region. i also don't see a lot of alignment at the national level perhaps from those core principles. i think foundation base should be on those principles. from the other national perspective, and we talked about data and protection -- data protection and citizens wanting to own their data and so on, what is the appetite of each nation in terms of the sovereignty?

whether it is national sovereignty, digital sovereignty, citizens sovereignty. that is important. what i mean by that is, how much autonomy and control we want to have over these digital assets we are implementing, the infrastructure as well, the data. those are things you have to keep in mind as well. >> i want to turn to you, especially after andrew's point, but as a follow-up to the conversation we just heard about the importance of digital literacy. i think this goes directly to your expertise here at the atlantic council. what role can education and capacity building play in supporting the development of responsible governing, transparency, and security standards in the adoption of these digital tools? this is particularly important for latin america and the caribbean. i am curious on how we make that

happen. >> happy to call out capacity building is a significant threat here as we invest in new technologies, also requisite investments that have to be made on training and education. what does that look like to take advantage of these new tools? technical trainings come to mind. in addition to that, there is also a need for policy and strategy training to better understand how we govern these technologies, how we leverage them, but keeping that through line of what responsibility do we have and how do we make sure we keep that front of mind as we are developing policies? there is an opportunity to engage policymakers through that. the last piece i think is for average people. we are talking about how do we create more informed users of technology? everyone is a user of technology, but they have varying different levels of understanding. how do we create a more informed

populace that is able to take advantage of these technologies but also understands the ramifications associated so they can hold their government more accountable? >> i don't know how many of us actually read through the "do you accept" note that websites have you clicking on. this is part of the digital literacy experience, if you are actually comfortable with the information you are sharing or not. nowadays if you reject it, you don't have access to everything you wanted to see. this is important for us to continue these conversations. thinking about the investment part, in what ways has the ustda been working on the adoption of responsible to visual tools for urban development that can serve as a success story for the region, and if there are any lessons you could share with us in terms of those adoptions and the responsibility and accessibility of those? >> i wanted to touch on a couple

questions andrew raised. i will try to integrate that into my answer. we at ustda to follow the monitor and implementation of our projects and we are proud of our success. one of the success stories we have is in jamaica with smart streetlights. it's something the assistant secretary brought up in terms of the lighting and how important that is. in jamaica we partnered with jps, the utility there, to test and pilot smart streetlights and really incorporating led technologies along with intelligent controls and metering capabilities. they were able to not only implement smart streetlights in kingston, in montego bay, but also in the rural areas. it led to over 100,000 new smart

streetlights across true makeup -- across jamaica. we are pleased and proud to be partnering with the minister of montenegro on the digital connectivity centers. these digital connectivity centers, there is about 10 pilots right now for the rural areas that are women and indigenous led and utilizing solar energy. that we hope will lead guatemala to implement over 3000 sites across rural guatemala. there is a divide between the cities. there is such a urbanization. but also bringing those benefits to rural areas is important. the topic of today is smart cities. we have many ongoing projects in the region. we have a return to kingston and an ongoing pilot for smart city technologies there. we are working with the city of medina in mexico in terms of public transit and improving the

bus system there. we are doing that in ecuador, where 70% of the population utilizes public transport everyday. we are helping them with intelligent transportation systems there. i visited the bus control center. you can see how the traffic is progressing through. it is exciting to partner with great local and state and city governments, which we do, and the private sector as well. this multi-stakeholder approach is critical. we are very proud to have the opportunity to reach even more, to partner with more cities throughout the region. >> that is the multi-stakeholder approach, definitely one that is great we were able to hear from aws in terms of the public-private partnership we can advance in terms of the adoption of these digital tools. you have spoken publicly about the need for solid breaks when

undergoing such high-speed transformations, particularly with the implementation of ai for policy. i wanted to pause and ask what do you mean by that and what lessons can we draw to learn from both the need of said breaks and best ways to design them? that goes into the responsibility aspect in the implementation and tracking of how the metrics and scaling of these tech advancements. >> just to clarify, that is not my quote. i stole that quote from a panel back in the blockchain days in brazil. there was this panelist that -- formula one is very big in brazil. apparently he said something to the extent of, we need to put better brakes in these racecars, but not to slow down, but to be

able to go faster. we want to accelerate on that sharp curve. that analogy applies. i used it recently at a panel in uruguay talking about national ai strategies, but it is applicable to the setting today. it is that balance between regulation and innovation. it is that conundrum we are always part of. i think as policymakers we have to keep a couple things in mind. the pace of technology was always outpacing the regulatory framework. now with covid and more digital adoption and with ai, it has been exponential. we just have to accept that. we have to use policies and regulations as tools for acceleration and perhaps not for restriction. that is kind of the idea. the other thing i would say, and

i've talked to a lot of folks as i've traveled, on derbent regulatory frameworks -- on different regulatory frameworks. brazil is more centralized. creating an environment that is low in complexity, low in uncertainty, i think that helps the stakeholders and private sector. what i mean is there are many examples, but i remember the days we were talking about net neutrality, starting here in the u.s., but in the caribbean they talked about that, brazil talked about that for the past decade. here -- i don't want to get into the details of net neutrality, but is the internet considered a public utility or is it information services? title i, title ii. it has changed from title i to

title ii, it changes back depending on the administration. it is either the sec or fdic that regulates it. it complicates things all over. having a good regulatory framework that simplifies things. a big voice can -- the big boybs can adjust quickly. but small businesses that have to change their products, i know i am monopolizing her panel, but i was at a roundtable in the world bank talking about privacy and ai a couple months ago. i'm not going, to say which agency from europe but this person was complaining about the contradiction's between the gdpr and uai live act. gdpr already created a lot of regulations for small businesses in europe and large businesses.

for small businesses sometimes it is cost prohibitive to change their products to adjust to that. but the uai act is cross-border. it would impact small businesses anywhere in the world. we have to consider the economic impact on the regulatory framework. that is what i mean by that. >> that is very interesting. i think that is something for us to continue to have conversations about. since we have limited time here, i think there is much more to be discussed in that sense. as governments begin to adopt these new technologies, what investments should also be considered to protect the integrity of these systems and anticipate threats associated with the growing attack surface? we touched on that at the beginning of this conversation, but an injection to the digital

cash but in addition to the -- but in addition to the digital literacy but the need to adapt to a changing environment, how do you see some of these investments being important for the integrity of these systems? >> i appreciate that call out. the adoptions of these technologies means an increasing and growing attack surface. malicious actors will attack that. they will take advantage of that, whether state or nonstate actors. there is a need for education and capacity building so we can use these systems effectively and protect them. there is another policy component that is less tapped into and there is opportunity for us to increase that through information sharing, but also with peer to peer and other countries in the region. there is an opportunity for us to engage on these issues and double down on those efforts to support international

cooperation. i would like to call out the oas's confidence building measures. for the atlantic council, we are training professionals through our university training programs. we are trying to get them familiar with those frameworks that exist so they can go in the workforce and try to leverage those. seeing what small actions can have outsize impacts when it comes to the stability of cyberspace, making it a more protectable place. >> for sure. he wanted to jump in -- you wanted to jump in? >> no doubt. folks are working from home. every company after covid has become a cloud company, governments as well. i think the surface of attack and new vectors are important. the other side of cybersecurity is on the resilience side and redundancy side. we all remember what happened with cloud strike this year. that impacted probably in the

billions the global economic impact. that single point of failure that all these companies, airports, delta -- i don't know how many flights were shut down -- that is important as well to minimize single point of failures. i heard diego talk before that the gap is in the demand side. i think designing these systems, especially smart cities, because you don't want a tax there. i think the impact is much higher. spending some time on designing these systems to minimize single point of failures is as important. i would add another thing on the capacity building, trying to fill in the blanks. i was in sao paulo and sao paulo has become a big digital city. not very interoperable, but they have a lot going on there.

a couple of my friends are very -- i don't want to say upset, but they are disappointed with the communication between the government and citizens. the need for redress in these mechanisms, and grievances mechanisms, both at the same time. the ability to communicate with the government. a friend of mine was saying i keep getting -- by made a left turn here and i automatically get -- sao paulo has lots of cameras that are iot edge devices. they do analysis and automatic payment. a lot of them malfunction. if they malfunction or not, you still get that bill. it takes a long time for you. these are small things we don't think from the perspective of the citizen. to write that dispute letter or go to court, whatever the

mechanism is, if we don't have the proper redress mechanisms and grievances on the side of the government, that is part of the capacity building that is very important to consider when we deploy these solutions. >> sao paulo would benefit from your example, keith. traffic in sao paulo is crazy. [laughter] this is something we should take into consideration. to wrap up, as a final round of thoughts, to all three of you, what is one set of recommendations or policy change that you would suggest for cities to adopt responsible, transparent, resilient digital tools for development? i think it would be important for us on the investment side, but also on what we were talking

about, the metrics and the ability to scale. >> thanks to this panel and for the great discussion today. from our perspective, yes, the project operation is key in order to have that roadmap for deploying and implementing smart city solutions and technologies. it's really critical because there are existing systems. how do you integrate with the existing systems? how do you protect it? how do you understand how it will impact the citizen? that is why it's great to have this funding under this initiative, whether it is a feasibility study or pilot project. in terms of a recommendation, please approach us. we are very excited to be working under this initiative. we would love to partner with you. i just came back from brazil over the weekend. i was seeing this in real time. we did have a great discussion

with the local governments about smart city opportunities. i think it is very well-timed for this, whether it's in brazil or mexico and the rest of south america. i think it is great. i just want to say thanks again for the panel. i want to specifically thank ambassador nichols for his leadership and support. >> andrew, i wanted to ask the same question. what is one recommendation for cities to adopt responsible digital tools for development? i think it would be interesting to try to think about it in terms of the connectivity between the federal and local government. >> i will say two things from a macro level now. if there is one success story around latin america, what uruguay has been doing for 15

years at least with all their work in e-government and open data and open everything, they are building -- the building blocks are the right ones. they are foundational building blocks. one thing that i like that they do, and this is kind of a referendum, is that they communicate policies and give an opportunity to citizens and civil society and everyone to respond before they are implemented. a couple states in the u.s. do that. california was doing that. coming back from the oas and promoting democratic principles, what better direct democracy than that? that is completely inclusive. you may not think all the comments from the public, but

you at least consider them. i think that is great. probably something we have to consider across america. to that point, i would also say when you build smart cities, i see that as more the level of application or presentation level. i am referring to the osi network layer. connectivity is layer one. i'm not saying you have to have everyone connected 100%. you have to, at the national perspective, whether it's programs like firstnet or maryland first for first responders, you have to have good broadband connectivity. the second layer is on the digital identity space. this is what india stack has done well, what estonia has done well.

the third layer is real-time payment processes, whether it is upi or c in brazil -- or pixie in brazil. we add an e. cbdc, if we want to talk about that. the fourth layer is a data exchange layer. this does not have to be designed at the national level as well as -- as long as it is well architected. i think those are four basic layers that have to start at the national level for any smart city initiative to work well. >> thank you. final comments and one recommendation for cities. >> there is this opportunity for cities to adapt the level of understanding needed for the many versus the few.

engaging in this design process that is responsive to that. acknowledging everyone will interact with this technology in different ways. how do we understand we have the tools needed to make sure it is safe and rewarding for them? >> with that, we are wrapping with lots of recommendation and action oriented points to move the conversation forward to the state level and federal and the global. i wanted to thank you for joining us, keith, andrew, safah, and i would like to thank all of these figures -- these speakers we had joining us. thank you to the u.s. state department. thank you for this data in cities initiative. there is a lot for us to do. i would like to thank all of you joining us in person as well as those joining us personally -- us virtually. see you next time.

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