The approval of the document CONPES National Policy for Digital Transformation and Artificial Intelligence at the beginning of November raises the conditions to enhance the generation of social and economic value in Colombia through the strategic use of digital technologies in a broad way, and involves the public and the private sectors in the use of ICTs as tools to boost productivity, faced with the Fourth Industrial Revolution. What the Colombian Mintic proposes is that the country presents a lag in the development of policies that act as key pillars or enablers for digital transformation. It also states that the country is not generating sufficient capacities to adopt and exploit digital technologies that allow the transformation of government practices, business models and society in general.

The objective of the plan is to promote the strategic use of digital technologies in the public and private sectors. With this Conpes 3975, it is expected that the Departamento Nacional de Planeación (DNP) (National Planning Department), the Dian, the Presidential Ministry for Economic Affairs and Digital Transformation and the ministries of Finance, Labor, Commerce and ICT will manage the resources for the financing of the strategies, which includes actions until 2022 and will cost approximately US$35 million.

As highlighted by the ministry in the document CONPES 3975: National policy for Digital Transformation and Artificial Intelligence, the pace of transformation of the country was slow compared to the rest of the world, as evidenced by the loss of positions in international indicators such as the E-Government Development Index (from position 31 in 2010 to 61 in 2018) and the Digital Competitiveness Index (from position 49 in 2014 to 58 in 2019).

The main actions, detailed by the Mintic, are: the reduction of barriers that prevent the incorporation of digital technologies in the public and private sector, that is, all those related to the lack of culture and ignorance of these technologies; the creation of enabling conditions through international alliances for innovation; the design and execution of initiatives to promote entrepreneurship and digital transformation, the strengthening of human capital competencies to enter the Fourth Industrial Revolution and the development of enabling conditions to prepare the country for economic and social changes that entails the AI.

This will be accompanied by a regulatory environment that fosters the technological development of AI and support for research. The ministry emphasizes that while important efforts were made by the Government to digitally transform the public sector, there are still great opportunities for improvement. At present, the implementation of digital technologies does not fulfill its objective of representing greater institutional efficiency, generation of social value and public innovation. As indicated, the problem in Colombia is that the country needs a preparation to face the socio-economic challenges that AI brings, because in the face of the 4IR, this lack of preparation does not allow the maximization of benefits of AI in the growth and competitiveness, and prevents minimizing AI risks in various sectors, among which the labor market stands out.

Given this scenario, one of the points to which more attention should be paid, according to the document prepared by the Government (Document CONPES 3975), is the strengthening of human capital skills and the development of conditions to prepare the country for economicand social changes that AI entails. For this, the National Learning Service (Spanish: Servicio Nacional de Aprendizaje, SENA), together with the Ministry of National Education, will publish on its website the quality guidelines for the articulation programs of secondary education, with the aim of incorporating the skills required for the 4IR, so that young people can take advantage of them and develop them. This activity began in November and will end in August 2020.

In addition, the Ministry of National Education will design a strategy that stimulates the creation and revitalization of learning environments for girls, boys, adolescents, youth, families and communities to interact with the emerging technologies of the 4RI, a program that will end in September 2022. Mintic actions are also planned, in coordination with the Presidency, in search of development of AI-based solutions for the improvement of citizen services and decision making in the public sector. In turn, the Presidency will execute a work plan in partnership with the World Economic Forum that will impact industry 4.0.