Mario Cimoli, director of Cepal Production Development Division, referred to the axes of the meeting, which will focus on the impact of new technologies on productivity increase and job creation. In dialogue with Convergencialatina, Cimoli said: "We see that connectivity had a great improvement in the region, especially wireless fixed and mobile broadband, but also wired networks. Internet use for consumption grows and now we have to discuss how we will go towards production Internet".

For Cepal official, "the concern is that in a recession, complex economic context, we can lose the focus of the debate and end up falling into outdated discussions on producing primary or manufactured products. We can not think, for example, agricultural production disconnected from ICT, from connectivity, from IoT. Today with ICT something overwhelming is happening, it goes across all sectors".

According to Cepal reports, the participation of the region in world exports of goods linked to the information technologies is concentrated in a few countries. As for e-commerce sales, they will grow from US$63 billion in 2014 to US$87 billion in 2018, but they will continue to have a share of around 4% of the global market.

In this regard, Cimoli told Convergencialatina that production digitalization is increasingly growing in importance and that the focus should be placed on supporting SMEs transformation. "SMEs are big employment generators, but if we do not make them change, it is difficult for them to survive the new scenario".

Cepal director also called for greater openness in the debate on the role of platforms, telecom operators and OTT, and how they impact on employment. "Protocols and standards should be re-discussed; we should look at what happens in the United States, the European Union and China, and position based on that". For Cimoli, "public policies are needed to think of innovation in the new keys posed by ICTs to increase productivity".