Brussels, 07/12/2001 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission has approved a EUR 85 million co-operation programme, "ALliance for the Information Society" (@lis) with Latin America for which EUR 63.5 million will come from the EU and 21.5 million from Latin American countries. It will be officially launched at a conference in Seville (Spain) in April 2002.
The programme aims to respond to the priorities set at an EU/Latin America summit in Rio de Janeiro in June 1999 and building dialogue and co-operation on policy and regulatory frameworks in telecommunications, e-commerce, standardisation, etc; 2) promoting exchange of information among researchers; and 3) twenty projects on e-learning, public health, e-inclusion and local governance. Calls for proposals will be published in early 2002.
In a press release, the Commission points out that around 20 million people were connected to the internet in 2000 and between 75 and 77 million are expected to be connected in 2005. Most of the telecommunications sector has already been privatised in Latin America, the Commission notes, with the number of fixed phone lines per inhabitant increasing by 15-20% on average throughout the region every year.