LACNIC 36 LACNOG 2021 Opens Its First Hybrid Event
13/10/2021
More than 220 participants joined us for the opening of this second day of the LACNIC 36 LACNOG 2021 event, which offered two opportunities for face-to-face participation.
The opening panel included Javier Salazar, Vice President of the LACNIC Board; Oscar Robles, LACNIC CEO; and Omar Paganini, Uruguayan Minister of Industry, Energy and Mining, who participated in the meeting from the LATU Auditorium in Montevideo, Uruguay. In addition, Ariel Weher, Chairman of the LACNOG Board, participated from the hub set up in the city of Pergamino in Argentina.
The panel began with Salazar highlighting the new hybrid format that allows being closer to the LACNIC community. He then encouraged organizations across the region to accelerate IPv6 deployment in their networks to ensure the continued growth of the Internet.
Salazar noted that the Regional Internet Registry has assigned millions of addresses and that this has allowed Latin America and the Caribbean to reach 400 million Internet users. “Many others remain unconnected, yet the number of IPv4 addresses is finite and the pool of available addresses was exhausted last year. This is why we insist on IPv6 deployment to allow the rest of the population to be part of the digital space,” he added.
Uruguay, an “oasis of peace”. Oscar Robles then talked with Omar Paganini, the Minister of Industry of Uruguay, about the status of information technologies in the country and the region.
Robles noted that Uruguay is an “oasis of peace and tranquility” within the regional context and asked the minister about the outlook on local development and the capacities the country has shown to attract major international technology companies.
Paganini mentioned three factors that allow Uruguay to be well-positioned with technology companies.
The first of these factors relates to the country’s technological capacities, the result of 30 years of development that has allowed the sector to export to the region, the United States, and worldwide. Paganini stressed that national per capita software exports are the highest in Latin America.
Second, Uruguay has good infrastructure, which includes 80% coverage of fiber optic to the home, submarine cables, high mobile penetration rates, and widespread Internet utilization.
Third, Paganini observed that Uruguay has institutional aspects that make it attractive for the “great technology companies of the world,” including its history of stability and consistent respect for contracts and the rules of the game.
Regarding the post-pandemic future, Paganini explained that the country seeks to position itself very well within the global context, both in terms of digital technologies and renewable energies.