Álvaro Calderón Hoffmann, head of ECLAC's Innovation and ICT Unit, pointed out at the 8th Latin American Congress on Digital Transformation (CLTD 2021) that between June 2019 and June 2020, Internet sites linked to electronic commerce increased by more than 400%. On the other hand, digital platforms grew in the order of 1,500% in the last decade.
The official highlighted that the region's structural problems are low investment and high informality, as the main factors limiting growth and development throughout Latin America.
As for informality, Victoria Hernández Mora, Minister of Economy, Industry and Commerce of Costa Rica, said that, of 150,000 SMEs in the country, about 100,000 are in this sector. To promote bank digitization, the Central American Government launched the “Simple Móvil” platform for payments through the mobile device. Before the pandemic, about US$ 35 million per year moved through the solution then the figure jumped to US$ 3.5 billion in the pandemic, with 11 million transactions recorded as of December 2020.
Much talk and few actions. Ana Valero, ASIET president, the organizing body of CLTD 2021, warned that 45% of the population is outside the digital world. 7% live in areas where there is no type of connectivity, added to the 38% of the population that does not use the Internet. "Much talk, but few actions," denounced the executive, who also serves as director of Public Affairs and Regulation of Telefónica Hispam. She urged governments to have a digital transformation agenda with resources allocated to each project.